Real Boyfriend
by Satan Abraham
Summary: You know, it's hard getting over the guy you made out with in abandoned houses. But there's no way it really ever could have lasted, not when someone like The Artful Roger existed. [howard/edilio] [implied onesided howard/orc] [roger/edilio] [rated t for language]
1. Prologue

Howard Bassem was pressed against the wall, hands entangled in Edilio Escobar's hair, kissing him as hard as was physically possible. They were in one of the abandoned houses that wasn't too messy, at least compared to the rest of the inhabitable FAYZ, though Howard didn't think that he'd notice anything like that with Edilio's lips pressing his as hard as they were.

Edilio drew away suddenly and Howard made a noise in the back of his throat. "I think me and Roger are going to be together soon," Edilio said abruptly. Howard sighed, leaning his head back against the door.

"I really don't think you know how much of a mood killer you can be sometimes, Deely-O," he said. He shifted, then stared Edilio straight in the eyes, noting irritably that Edilio had hit a growth spurt and now had at least three inches on him. "So what? Why do I care?"

"If we do," Edilio said, speaking carefully. "We're not going to do this anymore."

"Do what? Make out in abandoned houses and then act like nothing happened? I'm shocked, Edilio, I thought you were all about lying to people. Cheating should be second nature," Howard said drily, picking at his shirt. It was weird, what they had – they weren't particularly friends, though Howard did have a healthy amount of respect for the kid. Respect that, he was sure, wasn't returned. Still, he didn't think that Edilio hated him. He didn't think that Edilio had the capability to _really _hate anyone. "Nah. I figured as much. Still don't know why you're telling me, though."

"I thought you'd like to know," Edilio said. He looked uncomfortable. Howard laughed.

"Oh, yeah, nobody tells anyone _anything _around here, might as well tell the guy I use to get rid of some sexual frustration and make sure I'm gay that I might have a real boyfriend soon," he said. "You know, the things that really matter. But like I said. I don't care. I'll go back to cleaning up Orc's puke and listening to Drake threaten to kill me and poking my fingers open trying to make sure that Orc has at least a few spare pairs of shorts. Rock or not, I don't think anyone wants to see his junk hanging out. You can all thank me for that."

"I feel like you're taking this kind of hard," Edilio said. Howard stopped mid-speech and glared. Edilio grimaced and pushed hair back from his forehead. "Look. I know it's tough taking care of Orc-"

"_Tough, _that's the understatement of the century-"

"But the way I see it, you care about him, and even if you did have some other job, you'd be doing it anyway," Edilio said. Howard winced, because he was right. All Howard really did was make sure Orc didn't kill himself or others – and he wasn't always too great at the latter – but even if he was out in the fields picking vegetables, he'd be taking care of Orc. He'd be searching old houses for old mattresses and tarps and canvas. He'd be experimenting with brewing his own beer, he'd be looting houses for the real stuff.

"Yeah, well, if you haven't noticed, he's a rock with a crush on Astrid the Genius," Howard snapped. "So forgive me for not seeing much potential there. You ever got close to a _rock_? Just sleeping in the same vicinity gives you scrapes in places you don't want scrapes, imagine making out with one." He paused and thought a bit. "Well, hell, the resident genius seems to be the root of all of our problems. Both Sam and Orc are head over heels. Ain't Sam who you wanted a while ago?"

Edilio looked uncomfortable. "Roger."

"Oh, right, art-boy," Howard said. "The guy this entire thing was about. Forgot about him."

Edilio snorted, and Howard reached forward to grab him by the front of the shirt.

"Either way, it's not official yet," he said, pulling him closer and kissing him hard. Edilio kissed him back, and Howard could push thoughts of Orc and the fact that he was about to lose one of the only halfway-decent things in this sad excuse for a life as soon as said halfway-decent thing got the balls to ask out The Artful Roger.

* * *

**I'm not really sure where all of these Edilio/Howard oneshots are coming from. I mean, I love Orcward as much as the next person, but I… never really have any ideas for them. And I do for these guys, so this is what we get.**


	2. Chapter 1: In Which Howard Sees Them

This was definitely the most awkward situation that Howard Bassem had _ever _been in.

Backtrack a bit. He'd been wandering around when he'd come to Edilio's place of residence. The guy's recent mention of the fact that he might be hooking up with the guy they called The Artful Roger had completely slipped his mind, and Howard had just let himself in. Right into Edilio and Roger having some fun of their own.

They hadn't noticed him until he'd cleared his throat, and at that point they'd both jumped away from each other so fast you would've thought they were expecting a devout member of the Westboro Baptist Church. Then Edilio had seen him and relaxed. Roger still didn't look like he liked what was happening, though.

"So," Howard said. He smirked. "You did it, huh?"

"Did he know?" Roger asked, giving Howard a weird look, which Howard thought was greatly unneeded. He'd never even _talked _to this kid before. Edilio rubbed the back of his neck.

"Er – yeah," he said. "I told him because-"

"Because we'd meet in abandoned houses and make out, basically," Howard said. Roger blinked a few times.

"Aren't you the guy that hangs out with a rock?"

"An alcoholic rock," Howard said. "But yes. That would be me. Aren't you art-boy?"

That was never going to catch on. Damn whoever had given him that other nickname. But it made him uncomfortable, and that was pretty cool – at least, Howard thought that was pretty cool until he saw the look Edilio was giving him. At that he sort of bared his teeth in a grimace and backed up.

"I should go," he said. "I've got, uh, a rock to take care of."

"I'll show you out," Edilio said, and marched over and grabbed Howard's arm in a grip that Howard didn't know he'd had. Howard tried to squirm away, but Edilio hung on tight until they were outside. "What are you doing?"

"Honestly? I just forgot. You mentioned it when I was distracted, man. You can't expect me-"

"Not that," Edilio snapped. He rubbed his temples. "I can get that. But why did you have to tell him?"

Howard blinked a few times. "What do you mean?"

"_I mean, _about what we used to do," Edilio said. "I guess I should thank you, because it felt a little bit weird whenever he'd talk about it being his first real relationship, and while what we had wasn't anything like that at all, it felt kind of like lying. But he never asked, so I never actually told him."

Howard arched an eyebrow. "Are you saying that your embarrassment of having kissed me overrode your natural Goody Two-Shoes nature? I'm impressed. I didn't know it was possible for you to find someone _that _undesirable."

Still, it sort of hurt. Sure, he hadn't told anyone about him and Edilio, either, but he wasn't currently in a relationship. And he wasn't the kind of guy to go around telling the truth all the time. But he kept his face in a smirk, even if he had to clench his jaw a little to do so.

"That's not really what I meant," Edilio said. He sighed, but he didn't continue, so Howard had a feeling that was _exactly _what he meant. So he just shook his head.

"Nah, Deely-O," he said. The nickname felt sort of weird in his mouth now. He turned around and flipped up a hand in a wave. "I know when I'm not wanted. Like I said, I forgot about art-boy. I won't come around again."

…

The next time he ran into The Artful Roger, he was not having a good day. Orc had had some sort of tantrum and thrown a chair into a wall. The chair had broken and a few sharp pieces had whacked Howard in the face, and now he had an absolutely spectacular cut on his cheek. As well as that, the kids he'd been planning on selling some booze to – real pre-FAYZ booze - had flaked, and he'd been expecting a decent amount of food from that. And now here he was.

They stared at each other for a few moments before Roger stretched out his hand tentatively.

"Hey, man," he said. "Sorry about before. That was… kind of an awkward situation, right?"

"Awkward," Howard said. He debated just blowing the guy off, but he didn't have enough energy, so he grabbed the guy's hand for a few seconds and gave him a strained smile. "So, anyone else know about your little thing, or can I count myself a lucky exception?"

"Uh, no, nobody else knows," Roger said. He flushed. He was tallish, and blond, and overall the exact opposite of Howard, looks-wise. "And… I know me and Edilio both really hope you don't tell anyone."

"Right, of course," Howard said. Wheels were beginning to turn in his head. "But it's gonna cost you."

"C-cost me?"

"How much do you guys make? I know they don't pay him nearly enough for all he does, but it's enough to keep you guys eating, right? What about the kid you've got hanging around? All three of you working?"

"Well… sort of," Roger said. He ran a hand through his hair. It was long, like most everyone else's, but he'd twisted his into some kind of bun. "I mean, Justin will go out in the fields, but he's just a kid, so he's one of the ones just helping out. I go out and pick cabbages and things."

"And I bet you eat there, then, right?" Howard asked. "And Edilio's – well, not completely satisfied in terms of having enough to eat, but they feed him, don't they? So you can spare something."

Roger looked hesitant, but he nodded. "I'll talk to him about it," he said. He laughed a little. "It's not like we're living together, you know. We just-"

"You can figure that out," Howard said. He turned to leave, but Roger caught his wrist, and he turned back, scowling. "What?"

"Do you still, like…" Roger said, losing his sentence and just sort of waving one hand around in the air like an idiot. Howard watched him with one eyebrow raised, wondering if he was ever going to finish. "Have feelings for him?"

Howard actually laughed, though it was out of surprise more than anything. "Feelings? Nah, man, I never did. We didn't do that. It was a, kind of, he guessed that I was gay and then he dragged me out to an abandoned house and kissed me and I kissed him back and we kept doing that for a while. Nothing sentimental."

Roger didn't look as relieved as Howard had thought he'd be, but he let him go, and that was the important part. Howard could… well, go home and deal with shitty things, but at least he wouldn't have to talk about his _feelings _anymore.

* * *

**Yeah, so I decided to continue this. Almost a year later, I decided to make this a multi-chaptered fic. This'll probably go the same way as **_**Screw, **_**which is sort of lying in fic limbo rn, but at the moment I'm super invested in this pairing [er, Howdilio] so WE'RE DOIN' THIS. THIS WAY I DON'T HAVE TO THINK UP NEW FIC IDEAS EVERY TIME I WANT TO WRITE SOME.**


	3. Chapter 2: In Which Food is Found

"You've been gone a lot lately."

Howard glanced back at Orc, who was sitting on his broken couch with some beer, as always.

"Yeah? Didn't think you noticed when I was gone," he said. He straightened. "Gotta get you your booze, man. Takes a lot of time, especially now that more people are drinking it."

"'s mine," Orc muttered. He finished his can – there were precious few of those these days; Howard was having to ration the actual cans he had left and explain it away as finding more each day – and chucked it onto a pile. "Gimme another."

"All out of that for now, big guy," Howard said. He stretched. "Maybe I'll find more later, but for now we've got some of the stuff that I've cooked up…"

He headed for the kitchen. It stunk, like everywhere else in the FAYZ, but half of that smell was Howard's homemade concoctions. All of the cupboards on floor level were full of alcohol, simply because if Orc tried to get down that far, he'd fall over, so he didn't _try _to get down that far. Howard locked them, too – not like that would stop a guy like Orc, but on the off-chance that someone wanted to try suicide-by-stealing-things-from-Orc, it would block them out. Howard kept the keys on a magnet on the side of the fridge. Facing the wall.

It was about the only damn thing the fridge could be used for, now.

Either way, the cabinet he was going to now didn't have a lock, and neither was it on the very bottom of the kitchen. Nobody wanted this stuff – it was _vile. _Orc drank it because it got him drunk, but only if Howard gave it to him. Howard kept it in those big coolers with the spout, and he had a few old cans that he used for cups. Not like there was any shortage of cups, but metal, even aluminum, fared better against Orc than glass or weak plastic. Maybe sometime he'd look for some stronger cups, but for now, Orc got cans.

Suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to get _out _of there, Howard handed the can to Orc and made for the door.

"Where are you going?" Orc called after him.

"Get more if you want!" Howard said. "I'll try and find something for us to eat. Damn kids haven't been showing up with anything edible last few times, and now all we've got is vodka and shit like that. The last group I met with tried to give me a loaf of bread that was covered in an inch of mold. Shit, I didn't even know it was bread at first-"

He cut himself off when he realized that Orc had passed out. Muttering a bit about losing the only damn good thing that he'd had since the FAYZ started to art-boy, Howard headed out.

The sun was setting, and Howard shivered a little unintentionally. He had a few blades on him, but his main weapon was at home, sleeping off more cans of beer than Howard would be able to drink in a _week, _let alone a day.

Not to say he didn't like Orc. He didn't mind the guy. He'd been Howard's protector for a while, and now Howard was… well, sort of actually making himself useful, instead of just pointing out people that Orc should beat up.

Well, he still sort of did that, too.

But for now he was just walking.

He ended up at the school, which was graffiti'ed up with broken windows. Howard wasn't surprised at the disarray; he'd broken a fair few of those windows, too, when he'd been sure of his position. Sure that he'd been important. Now he wasn't important, but it didn't really matter to him now.

He pushed open the nearest side-door and walked in. It was dark, and quiet, and Howard wondered idly if, maybe, they'd overlooked a few cans of something mass-produced in the basement below the kitchen. He seriously doubted it, but maybe… _maybe…_

He'd hated them when going to school, but he'd trade an arm for a can of sugared-up peaches. Just the thought of them made his mouth water, and he wiped it off on his hand before heading for the kitchen. He didn't remember being on school duty, though he was sure that they must have searched it. Right? They had to have searched it.

Now that he was thinking about it, he didn't know if they'd really searched the basement, which was stupid. They'd been starving, and if they hadn't searched the basement, they'd have been idiots. _But. _

He was the idiot. He hadn't remembered it until now, as he stood with one foot heading down into the impossibly dark kitchen basement, but he remembered Caine shoving a fridge against a door with his telekinesis. A door to a side storage room that Sammy Boy probably didn't know existed.

A storage room that was probably still full to bursting.

He went so fast down the staircase that he tripped and rolled the last half of it.

Muttering curses to himself, he picked himself up and felt for blood. He didn't think he was hurt, but either way, it didn't matter. He was definitely going to bloody himself up a bit throwing himself against that fridge in an attempt to get it out of the way.

This was maybe something that he should have brought Orc for, but he'd probably have broken the stairs, so Howard was going to have to content himself with throwing himself against a fridge repeatedly.

He felt for the fridge, trying to remember where the storage room was. There were quite a few fridges in the basement, but this one would be by itself… right? He hoped so. He hoped he wouldn't end up throwing himself against random fridges in the hopes that he'd find the right one.

He'd thought he'd found the right one when he heard someone open the door to the basement. Cursing once more for good measure, he dropped and wriggled underneath the lowest shelf. He made himself as small as possible, hoping that whoever it was had no light and would leave immediately.

"Someone here?"

Oh, shit. Art-boy himself.

"I heard a crash," Roger called, and Howard stayed quiet. He heard a few muttered words and a click and groaned inwardly. The kid had a flashlight. He wondered if he should slip out now or stay hidden. "Howard?"

Damn it.

Howard rolled out of his hiding place and managed a grimace, staring straight into the beam of a flashlight. It was one of those crank-up ones, which explained why he had it, at least. Other than the fact that he was the boyfriend of the police, that was. "Hey, art-boy," he said. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Roger showed his backpack, which was bursting full of whatever. "I figured there would be some art supplies here," he said. "What are you doing here?"

Howard lied smoothly.

"I thought I'd hidden some beer here. Orc's getting restless, but I guess I already used it."

"Why'd you hide, then?"

"Damn, so you only look like a ditz?" Howard muttered. Roger cranked the flashlight, bringing it back up to full beam. "Look, I know a lot of people aren't fond of my whole booze thing. I just thought it was one of those people. Ain't you a pot-smoker? A lot of artists are, right? Or is it something more hardcore for you?"

"I talked to Edilio about what you said," Roger said, and Howard resisted the urge to slam his head against the wall. Repeatedly. "Look, man, I don't want to be enemies. But…"

"But you can't spare any food, and you're so sorry, but, oh, please, don't tell anyone about my boyfriend. Dude, you've _got _to know that our favorite little not-Mexican is one of the most respected people in this hell. It goes Sammy, Lana, him. Nobody's going to give a shit."

"I'm not ready for that," Roger said. His voice was low, and quiet, but it didn't sound tense. "Neither is he. And, anyway, you two didn't announce it, did you?"

"We didn't have anything to announce," Howard snapped. He rubbed his temples. "Look, could you leave? I don't have time for this right now."

"Need to get back to looking for your imaginary liquor?" Roger asked, and Howard sighed.

"Yes. Scram, art-boy."

Roger shrugged and headed off, and as soon as Howard heard him walking away and out of the kitchen, he headed for the fridge. He realized that he didn't really even have to ram himself into the fridge that much – there was a gap between the fridge and the shelf, and with some wriggling and broken fingernails and a few seconds of not being able to breathe, he was in the storeroom. He wished desperately for Roger's wind-up flashlight, but decided to stumble for a random shelf. His hand closed around a large can and he grabbed it, crouching down on the floor and pulling a knife and hoping he wouldn't stab himself.

He stabbed down, shearing through aluminum and pulling it around far enough for him to be able to pry it up with his hands. He cut himself but didn't care, he could feel something syrupy beneath his hands and with his luck it would literally be syrup but he didn't _care _right now, he didn't care at all. He was never going to go hungry _again. _

He was so preoccupied with this, too preoccupied with feeling something solid and pulling it out and tasting something _sweet _(Pineapple? Maybe? It had been so long, he wasn't really sure) that he didn't notice that Roger was back until he saw a flashlight shining in his face.

"Shit," Howard said.

* * *

**I love this fic. I love writing this fic. This is totally going to go the same route as**_** Screw.**_


	4. Chapter 3: In Which Pineapple is Eaten

To Howard's surprise, the first thing Roger did was _not _ask him what he was doing, or threaten him, or anything – he just pulled out his own knife and, taking his flashlight in his teeth, opened the can further. They gulped the food – it _was _pineapple – and Howard thought that it was kind of weird, gulping down food with this guy he'd been building up to be a weird sort of rival.

But, hell, pineapple.

Howard felt his stomach lurch and he clapped his hand over his mouth, closing his eyes in an attempt to keep it down. He forced it back down, swallowing rapidly, and eventually leaned back, sighing a little. His stomach hadn't been that full for months.

Roger stopped eating as well and licked the pineapple juice off of his fingers. Howard's stomach lurched again at the sight of that, and he wiped his fingers on the inside of his shirt.

"We should report this," Roger said. He gave a longing look to the can of pineapple, and then shone the flashlight around. It was shoved full of food, from canned fruit to canned soup to canned vegetables. "We really, really should report this."

"Fuck that, art-boy," Howard said.

"But… Edilio can't really hide this, everyone's sort of counting on him."

"Dude, maybe you shouldn't have such an important boyfriend," Howard said. "And who says he needs to know, anyway? Unless you're worried about him tasting it-"

"Please don't go there," Roger said, his face pained. He sighed. "I don't know, man… I really think we should tell people. I'd feel weird eating it when, like, Justin couldn't have any-"

"Then don't eat it," Howard said. "Look, I found it."

"You knew it was here," Roger said. "How?"

Howard paused. "Caine," he said. "When he first took over, he filled it and shoved the fridge in front. I was there."

"Right," Roger said. He was quiet. He'd always been quiet and out of the way – Howard thought that Roger had probably gone to his school, but he didn't really remember him. Art-boy, maybe a few friends, spent most of his time in the corner sketching. "I think we should tell."

"Dude. No," Howard said. "I am not about that life. I am about not starving. And you know what'll happen if we tell Edilio? Albert gets his hands on it and controls it. Albert eats pineapple. And, hey. A member of the council _knows, _right?"

He smirked a little.

"I really don't know how you got on that council," Roger muttered. Howard laughed, though he wasn't even sure how either. Well, he knew how – it had involved a lot of "Orc, representative, I'll be good, Orc, Orc, Orc" – but he didn't know why the hell Astrid had agreed. Though she was off now. She was off and everything was beautiful.

"But you'll keep quiet," Howard said. Roger hesitated.

"Fine," he said. "Just until I can figure some stuff out, right? And then we'll meet back here."

Howard laughed. "Man, I'll meet you here every day if you want. Eventually maybe I'll be able to eat a bunch without feeling like I'm about to puke. Don't leave yet, I wanna put this on the shelf and I need a flashlight for that."

He pushed the metal top down a little, cutting up his hand again as he did so, and sucked on the blood.

"You think Lana would heal this? She doesn't like me, but…"

Roger shook his head and then was gone, and Howard headed out after him. He didn't bother shoving the fridge back; there was no way anyone was going to go in there, anyway. Nobody went in the school anymore, unless they were The Artful Roger looking for paint.

…

He knew something was wrong before he entered the house. Maybe it was the fact that the door was hanging on one hinge, swinging with a _creak creak creak _that was apt to drive him crazy if he heard it too many times.

"Orc?" he called, a little nervous, as he entered. He'd caved and brought some pineapple home. He'd had his backpack with him, of course, and he'd just decided to dump some of his home-made booze out and shoved some in there. He'd thought Orc would appreciate it, or maybe he'd just eat it when Orc was passed out one day.

The basement door was open. Oh, fuck. Oh, oh, oh fuck.

"Damn it, Orc," Howard muttered. Orc was nowhere to be seen. Drake-Brittany, either. How the hell had that happened?

He kept moving through the house. The living room looked like normal, everything in its usual state of disarray, but the kitchen…

Well, the kitchen had a big fucking hole in the floor.

"Fuck, Orc," Howard muttered. He didn't know what, exactly, had happened, but he could guess. He could picture Orc tramping back and forth between the couch and the cooler and eventually getting pissed and trying to get at the stuff Howard had locked in the low cupboards, and falling and breaking it and _fuck, Orc. _

"I've gotta tell someone."

"Man, they're going to be so pissed."

"_Fuck, _Orc."

But he had to tell someone, right? He had to tell someone, because if he didn't then when it got out he'd look bad. And there was the matter of Orc. He needed Orc, both for protection and because, hell, the guy was his friend. At least, that was how he saw it.

He really shied away from telling Edilio, because he didn't want to run into him again, and that inevitable question – "Where were you?" – well, with your boyfriend, Deely-O, eating pineapple. "Where'd you get that?" – well, there's this stash Caine put beneath the school that I forgot about, and he just happened to be nearby, and "Were you planning on telling someone?" and no, no, I wasn't, but just because-

"Focus, Bassem," Howard muttered. He bit down hard on the fleshy part of his palm and sucked in a deep breath through his nose. "Focus. Where would Orc go? What about Drake?"

Orc would… Orc would…?

Coates was the only place that Howard could think of, if only because that was where the still was. Orc was someone Howard could worry about all by himself and not be scared he was going to get whipped. He supposed that he shouldn't be worried about Drake at this _exact second, _both because he was pretty sure the dude wouldn't stick around here, and also because Drake could be Brittany, right?

"Still gotta tell someone," Howard said. "Breeze, maybe? Dekka?"

"First person I see."

He turned to leave, then hesitated. He'd shove his backpack with the pineapple in it in one of his locked cabinets. And take the key with him, this time. Shove it in his front pocket, so that nobody could get at it and wonder what the hell Howard Bassem was doing with pineapple.

* * *

**And so let the fanfiction diverge from canon! I'm just doing this because, uh, this sets it on a path that makes Howard's death in Fear not… happen? But Orc'll probs still die in Light – er, either way, now is when the fanfiction really diverges. Drake gets out early, also the plague's probably going around but Howard's not really aware of it yet, little details are twinged and whatnot.**


	5. Chapter 4: In Which Sam Threatens

Howard wandered for far too long before finding someone. He checked in at where they all held the council meetings, he checked in on some regular places to find everyone, and eventually ended up running into Sam Temple.

Sam wasn't technically on the council anymore, but he was probably the best person that Howard could run into in this situation.

"Hey, Sam-" he said, running a little to catch up with him. He saw the flicker of annoyance on Sam's face before it flattened into apathy, and the panic that he'd been managing to hold down sort of overboiled. He took a deep breath and it came out shuddery, the lump in his throat rising completely to the surface. "Drake – Drake's gone, man, Drake, and – I dunno where Orc is, the – he – he's-"

"You lost Drake," Sam said. His voice was completely deadpan and Howard felt like he was going to throw up but if he threw up then Sam'd probably see the pineapple chunks so he held it down. He couldn't hold back another sob, though.

"I – I came back from – and then Drake was gone and Orc was gone and _man, you need to find him, he's out."_

"How did he escape?" Sam asked. He didn't wait for an answer, he just turned and headed back to Howard's house. Howard, again, had to run to keep up, doubled over by his sobs. "Where were you? Selling liquor to kids?"

Howard didn't answer. Sam kept walking. He looked pissed. Well, more pissed than usual. No longer the chill surfer, Sammy Boy.

Sam didn't stop at the open door. He went straight down into the open basement. A little cautiously, like Drake was standing right underneath the staircase, hiding down there somehow, but he just went straight down.

Howard headed into the kitchen. He looked down on Sam, who was looking around, picking through things. He held out his hands once or twice, like he was going to blast something, and Howard started getting a little nervous. Fucking moofs, man.

But eventually he just looked up.

"Orc fell through the floor," he said, his voice flat.

"Y-yeah, that's what I figure-"

"Orc fell through the _floor_."

Howard shrugged and hoped that Sam wouldn't want to come up here. He was a little nervous about Sam finding that pineapple, to be honest. He shouldn't have brought it back. The next chance he got, he was going to return it to the school. Fuck Orc. He was just going to eat it there, alone, or maybe sometimes with The Artful Roger during which they spent the time eating and pointedly ignoring each other.

But he knew that wasn't true. He'd probably carry it around until he found Orc. And maybe give it to him in an attempt to get him to calm down.

But for now, Sam.

"So you lost him," Sam said. He climbed up the stairs and then was beside Howard in the kitchen. Howard edged around to the side, a little. He'd stashed his backpack in the only cupboard he could really get to, and the closer Sam was the more nervous he got. Sam's eyes darted over the locks on the cabinets. "Is this where you keep it all?"

Howard stayed quiet.

"I should burn it all now," he said. He raised his hands and Howard flinched.

"C'mon, man, you don't want to do that," he said. "C'mon. What if I get Orc back here and there's no booze? He'll be mad. Come on. Don't do that."

"I really should," Sam said. But he clenched his fists and just glared at Howard. "I should shut you down."

"You're not on the council, Sammy Boy," Howard said, trying to fit an easy smile on his face. He was pretty sure it looked less like an easy smile and more like he was terrified out of his mind, but he had a feeling that Sam was either going to burn down his house or punch him in the face, and he'd like neither to happen. Even if he was pretty sure that he was going to want to move anyway. "You don't have the authority."

"I can shoot killer light from my hands," Sam said.

"Very true," Howard said.

But Sam didn't do it. He just looked around again, a sort of hopelessness descending over his features, and sighed heavily. He walked over to the edge of the hole and Howard wondered if he would break his neck or just be really mad if he fell. Not that he would ever push him, because it _could _(and probably _would) _be the latter. And Sam was a definite improvement over Caine.

Eventually, Sam turned to face him. "Tell Edilio that I've gone after Drake," he said. "And find Orc."

Howard wanted to make another quip about Sam not being on the council again, but Sam stormed out before he really had to chance. He waited a few minutes before retrieving his backpack, looking mournfully at the cabinets with no floor left beside them – he'd probably end up stretching a ladder over them and have Orc hold one end, and crawl out over the hole to try and get them back, and that would be really annoying but, hell, he'd do it – and then he grabbed his backpack and set out in search of Edilio.

…

Not being an idiot, Howard headed back to the basement storeroom to put the pineapple back before he looked for Edilio in truth. The guy had somehow gotten it into his head that Howard was 'selling illegal substances to children' and that they needed to be 'confiscated' and, as a result, Howard was sewing drugs into his jeans and Edilio was searching his backpack every time they saw each other in normal situations. The 'you're illegal' joke had gotten played out by now, too, so he didn't even have that to hold onto.

Pineapple wasn't, technically, illegal, but Edilio would have questions. Questions that Howard did not want to answer, especially since he'd pressured Edilio's boyfriend into keeping it a secret.

So Howard made sure he just had some of his home-brewed liquor, some vegetables, and his knife in his backpack when he found Edilio. He was to be found talking with some members of his little militia, giving them instructions with his super strict voice. Howard took the time to seriously wipe off his face, and then interrupted the conversation anyway because Drake was more important than who had what shift.

"Sam went to find Drake."

"Oh – _Drake? You let Drake get loose?"_

"I wasn't exactly there – but, um, I'm going to go find Orc, too, so – Sam told me to come find you, tell you that's what he's doing."

With that, Howard attempted to fade into the background, but Edilio grabbed his arm and pulled him out of earshot of interested recruits. Even when they were away, Edilio kept a good grip on his arm so that he couldn't squirm away.

"What happened?" he said. His eyes were flat.

"I came back, there was a hole in the floor, no Drake, no Orc, that's it," Howard snapped. Edilio sighed and rubbed his temples.

"You're not very much help."

"Sorry, was I supposed to run after Drake by myself? You wouldn't find me in one piece," Howard said. "I don't care what you do. Sam just told me to tell you that's what's going on. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find Orc."

With a final twist, he managed to get out of Edilio's grip, trying not to think about what kissing him had felt like. Because Edilio had been a really good kisser.

Roger's really good kisser, now, though. And Howard had nothing.

* * *

**So, for some reason all of these chapters are broke into two parts? IDEK, man. It's just what's going on. I write basically the entire first part &amp; most of the second one day, and then wait until the next day to finish it,a nd then write another huge thing… but anyway. Boom. We've gotta find Orc.**


	6. Chapter 5: In Which Lance

It was dark, and he still hadn't found Orc.

Howard Bassem sat down hard on the beach, swallowing back tears. It was stupid, but he just… _freaked _when he didn't know where Orc was. Part of it was, definitely, the fact that he was much more vulnerable without Orc looming behind him. But he was worried, damn it. Worried that Orc had… had thrown himself off a cliff or something. He didn't know where the dude was now. He'd looked practically everywhere.

There were a lot of problems in the FAYZ. The remnants of The Human Crew, controlled but still scheming, probably. The water that was becoming scarcer and scarcer – the rest of the council or, more likely, Albert and whoever he'd told, didn't think he knew, but he knew, he wasn't an idiot. And the fact that people were starting to get sick again. He'd heard a lot of coughs from houses, and it was kind of weird, because they'd just had a flu. And, of course, the fact that Drake was now on the loose.

But at this point in time, the thing that bothered him the most was Orc's disappearance. He'd made the trek up to Coates and back, and he wasn't even there. Hadn't been there, it looked like. Howard just… Howard just had _no fucking clue where he could be. _

He didn't especially want to hang out outside at night, especially not with Drake on the loose, but he didn't want to go home, either. He could head back to the school, but if he started going in there too often then people might get the idea there was something there. Which there was, but he didn't want people getting the _idea. _

Fuck it. He'd keep looking for Orc.

He rose and turned and was face-to-face with Lance.

Think of the fucking devil.

"Hey, man, I gotta go," Howard said. He made to pass him, but Lance took a step sideways, and Howard sighed. "Fine. What do you want?"

"I heard Drake's on the loose," Lance said. He'd used to be fairly handsome, but the FAYZ had sapped that out of nearly everyone. His eyes darted back and forth as he spoke. "That true? Aren't you supposed to be watching him?"

"Orc," Howard said automatically. He frowned, unsure if Sam – not that he was in charge or anything – wanted it out that Drake was on the loose. But the way that Lance was acting made Howard nervous, so he figured he'd just give the guy what he wanted so that he'd leave. "And, yeah, he's gone. Sammy Boy went after him. Brianna, probably, too. And Orc."

He tacked on the last name as an afterthought. To explain Orc's absence.

"So why're you out here?" Lance asked. There was a shrewdness in his eyes that Howard _really _didn't like. "Wouldn't someone like you be locked up in a house somewhere? It's not like you're any good in a fight. The only time I've ever seen you out on your own is when Orc's run off."

Howard snorted. "Don't talk about things you don't understand," he said. He tried to step past him again, but Lance moved to block him again. "My house has a hole in the floor. I'm waiting for him to get back."

"Aw, waiting for him on a beach," Lance said. "You know, I thought that stupid council only had one queer – well, maybe two, I'm not sure about Escobar – but I guess it's got you, too. Man, what is it with the double minorities?"

Howard's mouth dried up and he tried to figure something to say. He hadn't been in a situation like this in a long time. A situation where he didn't have Orc immediately at his back, looming over anyone that dared to try and hurt Howard.

But, Zil.

"I wouldn't be talking about that when _Zil Sperry _was a thing, fuckface," Howard snapped. Lance frowned.

"What?"

"Oh, come on," Howard said. "The dude was always staring at you like you were the best thing since sliced bread."

Lance's frown deepened, but then he shook his head and took a step closer to Howard. Howard took a very big step back, his foot landing in the water. He didn't like the direction this was going in. He _really _didn't like the direction this was going in. So he said the only thing he could think of.

"Hey, you want to get drunk?"

…

Half an hour later, Lance left Howard's house with a few bottles – they were, unbeknownst to him, some of Howard's home-brewed things that he'd been meaning to sell for about half the price of the real stuff – and Howard let out a deep breath and slid down the wall until he sat on the floor. Lance had laughed when he'd seen the hole in the floor and Howard had, again, wondered if the cons of pushing him in would outweigh the pros. But Lance had been too quick, so he hadn't even been able to try. Besides, he didn't know if he'd be strong enough to push Lance in. Sam had been bent over the hole, Lance had just glanced at it and laughed.

He didn't know what to do.

For not the first time, he debated dipping into his stash. It was hard, not to drink in the FAYZ. Howard didn't know how people like Edilio managed it, with all the shit he had to deal with. And it wasn't like Howard had never tried it, he'd just hated the taste and then thrown up everything in his stomach, so he'd never really wanted to try it again. But at the moment he was really feeling like the pros would really outweigh the cons, so he reached back into the cupboard and pulled out a bottle.

One of his. Ew.

He put the bottle back and grabbed a new one. He didn't know what it was and didn't really care, he just saw about an inch of liquid in the bottom and yanked off the saran wrap on the top. Must have been one that he was parceling out, bring-your-own-cup-day. He didn't bother with sipping, even though he probably should have – he downed it and then spent about five to ten minutes sputtering and coughing with his eyes watering.

Well. Onto another one.

Twenty minutes later, he was in front of Edilio's house. He wasn't completely sure how he'd gotten there, but it didn't really matter to him at that point. What did matter was the fact that the sidewalk seemed to be coming up toward him, and everything was tilting, and _woah, arms._

"Howard?"

Who the fuck.

He turned a little and there was Roger.

"Art-boy," Howard said. He struggled to pull away, but as soon as he was free the sidewalk was trying to swallow him again, and so he let Roger prop him up. "You. Are here."

"I live here," Roger said. Howard frowned.

"He never let me move in with him."

"Are you _drunk?"_

Howard shrugged, but that made him sort of dizzy and even _with _Roger helping him along he felt like he was going to fall. Or maybe puke. Both.

"'s Deely-O?" he asked. Roger was moving him, and it made him feel sort of sick, to be honest. Wooow, he shouldn't have done this. "He here?"

"No, he's chasing after Drake. Have you ever been drunk before? You look kind of-"

At this exact moment, Howard threw up on his shoes.

"Sick," Roger finished. He sighed. Howard was feeling much better, to be honest, even as Roger sat him down on the sidewalk and untied his sneakers, throwing them onto a large pile of trash nearby and steered him into the house barefoot. "Are you thirsty?"

"Oh, God-"

"_Water_, Howard."

"Oh. Okay," he said. He was still feeling weird, but not like he was going to throw up anymore. Maybe. Man, they had a nice couch. At least, he assumed he was on the couch. There was a little kid looking at him. When had he gotten there? He frowned at the kid and he scrammed, so that was good. He scrammed right into Roger, which was less good, because then Roger nearly spilled the water and then scowled at Howard but gave him the water anyway.

"So, why are you drunk?" he asked. Howard felt like this was the appropriate time to spill his guts – not like he'd done earlier, but in an emotional way. Get those feelings out there.

Ew, feelings.

But Roger was looking at him with those big blue eyes, and they already had secrets, and he really wanted to talk.

"Orc fell through the floor," Howard muttered. "And I can't find him."

"Huh?" Roger said. "This like a… Duck thing?"

"A what thing?" Howard said, frowning. "No, he ran away. Ran away, and he hasn't come back, and Lance knows I'm gay, but _Zil fucking Sperry, check and mate."_

"Er," Roger said. "What?"

But now Howard was done with that. "And _you, _man, _you, _art-boy, _you –_ You just came out of _nowhere_, like _where the hell who are you _I've never seen you before in my _life _like _what the fuck. _I don't even know what your last name is. You _had _to have gone to Perdido Beach, right?"

"Yep," Roger said.

"And that's _weird_, like, like, like, did you just sit in the corner and _draw _all the time? Is _that _what you did? Because I don't remember you! Who the hell are you!"

"That's… basically what I did, yeah."

"Why didn't I make Orc beat you up! That's something I should've done!"

"I'm really glad that didn't happen."

Howard flopped back into the couch, which was, actually, very comfortable. He'd been kind of intent on his discussion with art-boy, but now he was really feeling sleep. Sleep… was nice. His water sort of slipped out of his hand but Roger caught it, and now that that was out of the way he just sunk down and _slept._

* * *

**Well, AurorA, why don't you just prove yourself wrong there?**

**But, yeah, this chapter came pretty easily to me. It was a lot of fun. Lance making his PLOTS and all. **


	7. Chapter 6: In Which A Hangover Happens

Howard Bassem woke up the next morning wanting to die.

It wasn't a FAYZ thing. It wasn't a depressed thing. It was a 'oh my God my head my head my head' thing.

Howard groaned and buried his face in the… couch? What? He managed to ignore his headache long enough to push himself up to try and gauge his surroundings. Hm. Sort of clean – well, cleaner than his place anyway. There was a kid scribbling on the walls with some crayons that looked like they'd seen better days. Edilio Escobar sat on the chair directly opposite the couch.

Huh.

_What?_

He didn't realize that he'd said that last bit out loud until Edilio commented on it.

"You're in my house," he said. "Roger says you showed up drunk yesterday. I didn't think you drank."

"I don't," Howard said. He pressed both hands to his head. "This is why – oh, fuck, you got a bu-"

He didn't manage to finish his sentence and instead retched up some globs of something straight onto their floor. Wow, this day was getting better and better. Roger came in with a glass of water and made a face at Howard's pathetic attempt at throwing up.

"I can't find Orc," Howard said. He took a sip of the water. It helped. Sort of. "And then I ran into Lance. So I figured it was appropriate. Except it was the worst decision I ever made."

"But why did you come _here_?" Edilio asked. He looked kind of antsy. He was holding his gun. Howard was feeling uncomfortable. "Here, of all places."

"My house has a hole in the floor," Howard said. "And I was drunk."

"He asked about you," Roger said, popping his head into the conversation. Edilio raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up," Howard snapped. He didn't remember this at _all, _but he should get up. Head out, find Orc. Maybe drown himself in the ocean.

So he pushed himself to his feet, even though his head was still pounding, and downed the rest of the water, even though it made his stomach clench, and headed for the door. Roger called after him, but Howard waved him off. He wasn't moving very fast, though, and Roger caught up with him quickly.

"I think we should tell him now," Roger said. Howard scoffed.

"Tell him what? About the-"

"Yes, about the-"

"No," Howard said. "Never. Never. He's too good of a person. Nope. I'm leaving now. I've gotta find Orc. Who knows what he's gotten into?"

"Look, this could save a lot of people-"

"_Would-you-keep-your-voice-down?" _Howard hissed. He glanced back at the living room. Edilio apparently hadn't heard his boyfriend, either that or he was waiting until Howard left to interrogate, but either way, Howard didn't want him butting in. "Do you _ever _want to taste that again? You tell Edilio and then he tells Albert and then it all goes straight to Albert's private storage."

"He doesn't-"

"Like hell he doesn't," Howard snapped. "Don't tell the boyfriend. End of story. Good-bye."

…

There was no doubt that this dead kid was because of Orc.

Because Drake was out, there was bound to be an influx in dead children. But there were no whip marks here. Just a crushed head. Like Orc had hit a kid in the head because… because… hell, Howard didn't know why. Just that he probably had.

"Fuck, Orc," he muttered. He'd have to get rid of the body. He didn't know if the whole 'kill someone, get exiled' thing was still in effect – and given that Orc was way more useful than Hunter Lefkowitz at half of his brain speed than before, it probably wouldn't matter – but either way, he knew Orc didn't want people talking about this. Like they talked about Bette.

Howard felt weird about Bette, sort of, if only because that had been the early days. Before everything had gone to shit. Bette was the first kid _killed _in the FAYZ, at least that he could think of, and it had been Orc that had done it. But he didn't really feel bad, not now. Lots of kids had died. _He _was still alive, and that was what mattered.

But for now, the dead kid.

He dragged the body into a house that nobody used and shoved it into a closet. The closet was ripped apart; the entire house was. Looters. He should check for booze, some looters didn't bother opening locked cupboards because nobody kept food in locked cupboards, unless they were psychopaths. And this house looked decidedly non-psycho.

After a little bit of prowling, he did find a locked cabinet. He broke into it, and it was only easy because he'd had so much practice. But there wasn't any booze inside. There were a few chunks of what looked like gold, though, and Howard wondered if he could, maybe, get his hands on Albert's molds. The dude would probably cut him a share if he gave it to him, but why have a share when you could have the whole thing?

Either way, he shoved the gold into his backpack and headed back out to look for Orc.

But as soon as he stepped out of the house, there was Edilio. He was standing with his arms crossed and a crease in his brow caused by his frown and Jesus Christ he was fucked.

"Hello," Howard said. He wondered if he could make a run for it if he went for the back door, and then decided that was a stupid idea. Edilio wouldn't actually hurt him. Edilio was too good of a guy for that.

"Was it Orc?"

The body. He'd seen Howard and the body. Oh thank God, it was just the body.

"Probably," Howard said. He gave a sort-of half-shrug. "I dunno, really, it just looked more like him than Drake. No whipping. Just… dead. A little crushed."

"What were you and Roger talking about?"

Fuck.

"What do you mean?" Howard said. "He was making sure I was okay, like the weirdo he is. Damn, your tastes could not be more varying. Though I guess he's really your choice, I was more of a test drive. Like you're checking out a sports car before settling on something with four-wheel drive and room for kids."

Edilio shook his head, annoyed, and grabbed Howard's shoulder, pushing him back up against the wall. Howard may have known this was angry, but his body was being reminded of better times being pushed against the wall, and he really tried to calm himself down. "You were talking about something else. He said it could save a lot of kids. If it could do that, I need to know. And I don't like you forcing him to keep secrets from me."

"Who says I'm forcing him?" Howard snapped. His heart was beating embarrassingly quickly. He was pretty sure that Edilio could hear it. "Maybe he just doesn't want to spill his guts. I need to find Orc."

"Howard-" Edilio started, and then Howard couldn't take it anymore and he grabbed Edilio's collar and pulled him down and kissed him. Edilio played along for longer than Howard had thought that he would; he actually kissed Howard back for a few seconds before pushing Howard away. Well, really, pushing Howard further into the doorframe and pushing himself back a few steps, but the intent was there. "Why'd you do that?"

"Muscle memory?" Howard suggested, and Edilio looked like he wanted to hit him, so he tried to say something, anything, that would make him change his mind. "You were too close? I don't like people asking my questions? Take your pick, Deely-O, or I could come up with a few more things. Maybe I just wanted to kiss someone, what about that?"

Edilio just looked at him, and he tried to step past him, but Edilio blocked his path. "I'm not letting that go. The other thing. What is it?"

"And I'm not telling you. That other thing. What it is," Howard said, trying and failing to copy Edilio's slight accent. The longer the boy was in the dome the less noticeable it became. "You can do what you want. Like, lock me up or whatever. What are you gonna do, really? If it was anyone else, _anyone _else, I'd be scared. But you? You're like a fucking… a fucking puppy. Or whatever. Something that won't kill someone over something like this."

He was so busy talking that he didn't realize that Edilio was winding up to hit him until his nose was bleeding and felt like hell. He made a noise in the back of his throat and touched his nose, completely shocked by the bright blood on his fingers.

"Oh, fuck," he said, and then louder. "Oh, _fuck. _Orc-"

He bit back on the name because he knew that if he sent Orc after Edilio he'd be in big trouble. He'd just said it because it was instinct, to try and threaten with Orc if someone cornered him or hit him or something. Edilio was looking at him with some stupid look on his face, rubbing his knuckles a little, and he had no fucking clue what he was supposed to do.

"What, are you going to try and torture it out of me?" he asked, his voice a little higher than usual. "Just gonna keep hitting me until I give up and say it?"

He couldn't see any hesitation on Edilio's face. None at all. It was kind of disheartening, but he kept talking.

"I'm not going to tell you," Howard said. "I'm not going to. It's nothing. Shut up. Stop looking at me like that. Stay away from me-"

He cut himself off and whirled around and sprinted into the house. He slid through and aimed for the back, but Edilio caught him with a flying tackle that sent him to the ground. Howard struggled, wriggling around and trying to get a hold on something, eventually grabbing onto one of Edilio's ears and yanking, hard. He yelled a little then, but grabbed Howard's arm and dug his fingernails in and Howard let go. About thirty seconds later he was on his stomach with Edilio's knee on his back and one of his arms pulled behind him painfully. Howard was pretty sure that if Edilio pushed it up any farther it would snap.

"Lemme go," Howard panted, breathing mostly through his mouth because he was pretty sure that Edilio had broken his nose. "Le – ow, ow, ow, lemme go-"

"Not until you tell me," Edilio said, and Howard spat out a curse and Edilio didn't move. They were caught in a sort of standstill for a few minutes, both of them trying to get their bearings again, and then Edilio moved Howard's arm a few centimeters and Howard shrieked.

"_You're going to break it, fucknuts!"_

Edilio let his arm go but stayed on his back. He still couldn't exactly breathe but it was better than the earlier situation, and he just laid there with his cheek against the floor and his blood pounding in his ears, wondering how in the hell he'd gotten into this.

* * *

**This chapter brought to you by "AurorA has no clue what the fuck she's doing", thank you, thank you very much. But, uh, yeah – I D K where this is going, but it's canon divergence in the way that I'm going to try and make it so Bassem don't die in Fear. Which would be nice, right. That'd be real nice.**


	8. Chapter 7: In Which Orc Shows Up

They'd come to a sort of understand where now Howard was able to sit up with his back to the wall and his arm cradled to his chest while Edilio stood in front of him, completely set on not moving until Howard spilled something.

"What if I said I lied to your boyfriend?"

Edilio frowned. "What do you mean by that?" he asked. "Like, there's nothing actually that could help people? You just told him there was?"

"Yeah, that's generally what lying means," Howard snapped. He took a deep breath through his mouth and wiped blood from his nose. It smeared across his cheek, but he didn't really give a shit. "Just leave me alone. I gotta find Orc, man."

His voice cracked.

Edilio shifted from foot-to-foot and eventually sighed.

"Fine," he said. "Go find Orc."

Howard jumped to his feet and was out of there before Edilio could say another word. He shivered as he walked the streets, rubbing his arms even though it wasn't really that cold. He just had the chills. Like something was seriously, seriously wrong.

Well, Drake was out, Orc was missing, Lance was up to something weird, and he was sitting on a near-literal gold mine.

But other than that, it seemed. He drifted over near Albert's neighborhood, because he hadn't checked there yet. He hadn't thought that Orc would head over there. He'd thought Orc would head for someplace shitty, or someplace without a lot of people.

And maybe he was right, because Orc was nowhere around here. The remnants of the Human Crew, though – man, there they were, on the end of the street, talking all serious with each other. They had a crowbar. There was blood on one end. Howard swallowed hard.

Yeah, he wasn't about to get involved in whatever they were doing. Most of him figured that he'd find Orc sooner or later and then things would go back to the way that they'd been, but there were all of these sneaking thoughts, like he wouldn't come back, or he'd die (what are you _talking _about Orc can't _die_ he's a pile of _rocks_), and either way, Howard was feeling extremely, extremely vulnerable. So he turned around and left, slipping through a few backyards so that he was a few streets away before walking again. He stuck his hands in his pockets and tasted blood from his nose. Maybe he should go clean that off.

Maybe Orc would be at the beach. He'd checked there already, he'd checked there so many times, but it was a place for Orc. It was wide-open, with nothing to crush, and there was enough room for anyone who wanted to stay away from him but still be there to stay away from him and still be there. And if Orc wasn't there… well, it was early. He could head up to Coates and see if Orc had wound up there.

His stomach rumbled and he pressed a hand against it, ignoring it. He was hungry, he hadn't had anything since… yesterday afternoon? He didn't remember, but either way, that didn't matter. For the first time in a long time, food wasn't something that he was especially worried about. Not with that stash beneath the school. He wondered for a moment if Roger would tell Edilio, and worried about that for a while, but then figured that he wouldn't. Not yet. Not until they'd eaten it down to the cans of green beans or whatever.

God, being choosy was such a _nice thing. _

He got to the beach and knelt down, bringing salt water to his face. It stung a little, but it was good to not have his own blood drying on his face. He dried his face off with his shirt and turned and holy shit there was Orc. Sitting down, his head down, what looked like a mostly-empty bottle clutched in one hand.

Howard could understand how he'd missed him – he really just sort of looked like a pile of rocks in the sand, but that didn't stop him from feeling sort of bad about it. Had he been there for a while? Oh, God, had he seen Howard come and go?

No, no, he would've stepped in when the Lance thing had happened. No, he hadn't been here for very long. Probably not. Either way, he was here now, and Howard's chest felt so much lighter.

He stumbled over to him, slipping in the sand a little, and put a hand on Orc's shoulder. Orc looked up, his eyes meeting Howard's for a second and then flitting away.

"Orc, man-" Howard said. His voice cracked. "I've been looking all over for you. Where've you been?"

"I killed a kid," Orc said. He drew a thick line in the sand with one finger, and Howard nodded.

"I – I know, I took care of it, it's fine," he said. He neglected to mention that Edilio Escobar had seen him take care of it, but that didn't really matter, anyway. "C'mon, let's go home."

"I let Drake out."

"You didn't mean to, it's fine," Howard said. He was repeating himself over and over, but he felt like he had to say it so that he'd believe it. "It's fine. I bet now we can even get a different house. We can head home and collect all the stuff in the cupboards and then move in wherever we want."

Orc's head lifted at the mention of the stuff in the cupboards. While Howard generally kept Orc drunk because it served his purposes, if he drank too much he tended to get weepy. And it was like, enraged Orc was good, weepy Orc was less good. So maybe it was time for Orc to stop for now.

He reached for the bottle. "C'mon man, I need to be able to get you home," he said. Orc jerked away, and Howard sighed. "If you keep drinking right now, you won't be able to walk back. And-"

"I can't go back," Orc muttered. "I killed a kid."

"Yeah, so? They need you, big guy, they can't afford to Lefkowitz you. They won't. And, anyway, nobody knows!" _Nobody except Edilio. _"Who's gonna miss the kid, really? I don't even know who it was." _Mostly because you crushed his head but, whatever, right?_

"I can't go back," Orc said, enunciating as clearly as was probably possible for him. Howard shook his head and grabbed for the bottle again, and then Orc's arm caught him in the ribs and he went sprawling. He gasped for air for a few moments before realizing that Orc was probably freaking out again, and then pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the stabbing in his ribs, the feeling like something was cracked or broken in there. Could he go to Lana for that? She didn't like him, he was pretty sure, but if he had broken ribs…

"Orc, c'mon," Howard said. He was kind of doubled over but stood up as tall as he could without his ribs screaming. He held up his hands, keeping them pointedly away from Orc's bottle. "It's fine. It's fine. Just – just come on. Come on."

Orc got to his feet, a sort of lurching stand, and Howard took a step back in spite of himself. For the first time in a long time, he was scared of Orc. Not scared. Fucking _terrified. _Orc was huge, and Orc was made of gravel, and Orc had quite possibly broken two of his ribs with a nearly off-hand wave of his arm.

"I can't go back," Orc said. He turned and lumbered away, and Howard took a step to follow him, then hesitated. He should follow Orc if the guy was leaving, right? He was Orc's right-hand man. He was… he was…

Orc turned and looked at him.

"You don't have to come," he said. "You didn't kill no one."

"Orc… man…" Howard said. His mouth was dry. Part of him figured that Orc'd be back eventually, once he sobered up a little, or maybe if he got drunk enough to forget, but another part of him was panicking. And that panic was sort of taking over… well… everything. His hands were shaking as his breath was coming in short and his heart was pounding like crazy. Eventually Orc got tired of looking at him, or something, and then turned and walked down the beach. Plodded, really. He sat down a ways down the beach, and Howard figured that it would be stupid to follow him.

So, clutching his ribs, he headed back into town.

…

Coughing was coming from everywhere now, it seemed. Kids crawling along toward the hospital, a quarantine in affect. He should probably get inside. So he didn't catch it, too. But…

Maybe he'd head to the school. Slide in through some back door and then go down and gorge himself sick on pineapple and just live out the quarantine there. Caine had probably left some water bottles down there, right? Of all things, Caine was not stupid.

So he slid behind the fridge and he stumbled over something. He crouched down and picked up Roger's wind-up flashlight, and frowned. But he wound it up, and then he saw the note stuck to it.

_Howard-_

_ Leaving this here so that we've got some light in this place. Haven't told Edilio. _

_ Roger_

"Thank you, art-boy," Howard muttered. He let the beam of light dart around the room, taking inventory of everything. Cans. Huge cans of everything – fruit, soup, vegetables, _pudding. _Fucking _pudding. _He shook his head, not quite believing what he was seeing.

There was water; huge five-gallon jugs filled to the top. Howard could use some of this water. He definitely could use some water right about now. He could go for some pineapple and then some water and then he'd head back up and see if Lana would heal his ribs, which were definitely broken. He'd slid through, behind that fridge, and he'd definitely heard a crack. So he'd see if she would do something. He'd hope that she would do something.

He ate quickly, feeling a little sick as he slid out. He still needed to get that gold figured out; maybe he could make a deal with one of Albert's bodyguards. Jamal. He was Orc's buddy, sort of; mostly he just came over and drank with Orc so that he could get free booze. While Howard was gone, usually, but maybe if Howard slipped him some of the good stuff he would let him in.

Secure with this new plan, he slipped back out from behind the fridge, wincing when he was crushed and his ribs fucked with even more, and headed back toward Albert's street. He went slow. He didn't want to run into Lance and the rest of The Human Crew, because this time they might not be bribed away with second-rate whisky.

But they were gone by the time Howard got to Albert's street. The whole street was deserted, practically, and made Howard nervous. It was like, this was Albert's place, right? And it should have been bustling with people trying to get out of work, or something. But it wasn't. The quarantine, he guessed – not that he cared about the fucking quarantine – but it was still freaky.

He knocked on the back door. Nothing. Weird. He'd thought at least Albert would be home, or make one of his people answer the door for him, or… something. Howard didn't really know. But he could let himself in. If nobody was home, well, he could just look for the molds himself.

He searched for a while before coming across the body.

He yelped when he saw the body – he couldn't even tell who it _was _at first, just a small shape covered in blood and everything. It had to be dead. He had to be dead. Albert-fucking-Hillsbrough. Had to be dead. Oh, fuck, they were all fucked. Because as much as Howard didn't _like_ Albert, he knew the guy had it together. Had them together. And if he was dead, they were dead.

And then his fingers twitched and Howard jumped back. Was he alive?

He crouched down lifting up an eyelid. The pupil dilated. That… wasn't something dead things did, right? _Right?_

He should get Lana.

"Hey, Albert?" he said. He didn't know if the guy could hear him, but if he could, he was going to make sure the guy knew who it was who had found him. "Brother, it's me who found you. Who's getting the Healer for you. Howard Bassem. So – you owe me."

With that, he hurried out, cursing everything.

* * *

**Finished my re-read of the series last night, so I'm not sure how much longer we'll be getting chapters like, frequently. So there's that.**


	9. Chapter 8: In Which the Healer Heals

There was a sea of sick people moving for the hospital. Howard, being perfectly healthy (apart from the possibly broken ribs and possibly broken nose), managed to slide past all of them and burst through the doors. He figured that with the illness, Lana would be here.

He was not wrong.

"Lana! Healer!"

Lana didn't even look up. She had a hand pressed against a little girl's chest, a scowl on her face. Her boyfriend, that dude from the island – Sanjit – got all up in Howard's face. "She's busy," he said, and Howard rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well, Albert's bleeding out, so in case you want to lose _him, _you should get your hands off the kid and follow me," Howard said. Some kid coughed near him and he jumped. "Sooner rather than later."

Sanjit gave him a glare, and he gave it right back. But Lana did stand up, and Howard threaded through the sick people again, wincing whenever someone coughed. It bothered him. It bothered him a lot, mostly because he didn't want to end up with this. Had kids died from it yet? He didn't generally keep a close eye on the hospital, so he had no fucking clue.

"Hey, has this killed anyone yet?" he asked Lana. Sanjit, to his disappointment, was following them. For protection, maybe, but a tall, skinny kid without any powers wasn't going to be much protection. And like the Healer needed protection, anyway. Nobody wanted to kill the Healer. She was the fucking Healer.

"A few," Lana said. Her voice was rough. "Dahra's got charts. If you want to pour over them, like the scholar we all know you are."

"Hey, I'm not stupid," Howard snapped. "Jeez, I just wanted to know what the death rate was. And, uh, how easily it spreads."

"I'm sure we'll all mourn you when you pass," Lana said, and Howard scowled. He got that people didn't like him, and he didn't really blame them – hey, he did what was good for him, and people around here liked the heroes – but that didn't mean he liked it when they shoved it in his face. So he just sped up.

As they neared Albert's house, his little maid came rushing out and ran straight into Howard, her shoulder cracking against his already injured ribs. He let out a sort of yelp and stumbled backward, pushing her to the side and doubling over. Yeah. Yeah, that hurt.

Lana breezed right by him but Sanjit, for all that he seemed to hate Howard, hung back a little.

"What's up with your chest?" he asked. Howard huffed out a breath and stood as tall as he could manage.

"Doesn't matter," he said.

"Did someone punch you in the face?"

"Uh. Yeah. But that's fine. Don't worry about it."

"So you've got something messed up with your ribs and your face," Sanjit concluded. Howard clapped a few times.

"Lana's got a real catch here, don't she?" he said. He smirked a little. "So, you two done it yet?"

Sanjit grinned. "Are you aware of the several rumors surrounding you and our favorite rock-man?"

Howard was aware of these rumors, but he mostly tried to ignore them, because while his weird little thing he had for Edilio was most him accepting that Orc was never going to like him back – and that Orc was now a pile of gravel, and would be really uncomfortable to make out with and stuff – he didn't like listening to what people had to say about him. It was never any good.

"Touché, sucky," Howard muttered. He headed into the house, Sanjit on his heels, still grinning like an idiot. To be honest, he didn't absolutely hate Sanjit. For one, the guy looked like he wouldn't mind being sold some booze. Or maybe pot, or some other drug. Drugs were a little harder than booze, if only because he couldn't really create drugs out of old vegetables and shit like that, but he had a fair stock. Enough to supplement the drinking thing.

As well as that, Sanjit didn't take things too seriously. He just sort of went with it. And there was at least a little bit of respect you could give a kid who could seduce the Healer. Even if Howard was interested in that sort of thing, he didn't think that he'd go for it.

Lana was healing Albert when they got there. Howard tapped his foot restlessly on the floor, wondering if maybe he could get his hands on those molds in exchange for bringing the Healer and saving Albert's life. But there could be too many questions that way, and Howard was not about questions. He was about people leaving him alone and also maybe getting his ribs healed because _damn they still hurt. _

He glanced at Sanjit. He wondered if he would mention it to Lana, after she'd finished with Albert. He seemed like a decent guy. Smiled all the time. Cracked dumb jokes. Had shown concern when Howard had nearly keeled over. So maybe he would.

Albert was taking a while, though. Howard wondered how Edilio was doing, almost off-hand. What if he got sick? The thought made something weird sort of ball up in Howard's stomach, the idea of Edilio getting sick. Because out of all of these people, he was the one who didn't deserve to get sick. He just worked so damn hard all the time, and the rest of them just acted like… like it was nothing. It was damn _impressive, _that was what it was. The dude just went and went and went until he collapsed.

Like the fire. Goddam that fire.

…

_The rest of them are gone now, dispersed to wherever they had in mind to leave. Howard's pretty much cried out by now, but he keeps his head buried in Edilio's neck because it feels nice. Edilio's still holding him. That also feels nice. Howard can't remember the last time that someone had actually held him. He'd even stopped letting his mom hug him when he was about ten. _

_ After a few more minutes though, he draws away. "Sorry," he says. His voice his raw. He wipes at his eyes and snuffles up some snot. It's gross, but things like Kleenexes are a thing of the past, and he doesn't really feel like hawking and spitting right about now, because it feels like any sort of big thing with his nose or throat will set him off again, whether it be tears or coughing or both. _

_ "It's fine," Edilio says. He coughs a few times, and Howard wonders if he's got the flu like everyone else or if it's just the smoke. "It was… intense."_

_ "Intense, shit," Howard says. He tries to crack a smile but he's pretty sure it comes out weird. "It's just – damn. Damn. I didn't know things could burn like that. And how many – how many kids burned up, d'ya 'spose? I – I smelled some of them."_

_ "A few," Edilio says. He shakes his head, like he's annoyed with himself. "A few. More than a few."_

_ "Hey, man," Howard says, because right now he's feeling closer to Edilio than he's ever felt to anyone. "Deely-O. Do your looks at Sam mean something more than he thinks they mean?"_

_ He wasn't expecting this, it's obvious, but he recovers fairly quickly with a, "Do your looks at Orc mean something more than he thinks they mean?" and this is good, right, because this is exactly what Howard was going for. _

_ "Yeah," Howard says. He just throws it out there. "I've been figuring… I'm not interested – oh, fuck it. I'm gay."_

_ He really hopes he's reading it right, and that Edilio's the same way, because he's _pretty _sure ol' Deely-O's a Catholic. But Edilio just lets out a huge breath and his forehead knocks against Howards and he looks so goddamned relieved. _

_ "I'm glad there's someone else," he says. _

_ "Dekka," Howard points out. Not that he'd ever go to her for sexuality help._

_ "She's a girl, though. And tough. Real tough."_

_ "Point."_

_ "I don't know if I could be that tough," Edilio said, and Howard privately disagrees because, it's like all those stupid after-school specials said, the nice ones were the really strong ones, but he's sure as hell not going to say anything like that. Edilio cleared his throat then. "So, have you ever kissed a guy?"_

_ Howard let out a sort-of cough, sort-of laugh. "Dude, I haven't kissed anyone."_

_ Edilio has the audacity to look surprised. _

_ "Really?"_

_ "Yeah, really," Howard snapped. "Hanging around with Orc didn't exactly attract girls, and he – we- used to beat up on kids like me. So, no. I haven't kissed anyone. I don't think it's that surprising. I'm fourteen. Fourteen."_

_ Edilio responded by kissing him, which was completely fantastic and he totally hadn't been expecting it. He probably should have, given their conversation topic, but as it was he froze for a few moments before kissing him back as best as he could. It was weird, because it was like – they'd been getting steadily closer for a while, both of them on the council and just sort of being shoved together. Because Howard had no friends and Edilio's primary friend was constantly chasing after Astrid. But never in a million years had Howard expected it would turn out like this._

* * *

**Flashbacks, man. Motherfucking FLASHBACKS.**


	10. Chapter 9: In Which Questioning Friends

It took Lana a while to heal Albert, but Howard stuck around because a) he wanted to make sure that the dude remembered he owed Howard, b) he was safer here than probably anywhere else, now that Orc had gone AWOL, and c) he was still halfway hoping that Lana would heal him up once this was all over. His ribs still stung, and whenever he doubled over a little or pressed a hand to them in an attempt to shut up the pain, Sanjit gave him this look. This, _I know what you're thinking _look. Howard didn't like it.

After a few hours, maybe, Albert was fine and conscious. Lana stood and turned to leave, as rude and abrupt as she always was. Sanjit stepped in front of her and nodded to Howard. "Something fucked up his ribs."

"So?" Lana said.

"From the way he's clutching at them, they're probably broken."

Lana ran a critical eye over Howard and snorted. "Or he's a baby. Trust me. He's fine. What sort of situation would he even get in where he has broken ribs?"

"An Orc situation," Howard muttered, and Lana frowned.

"I thought you two were real close," she said after too long of a pause.

"Yeah, well, things don't end well when you try and take a bottle away from Orc," Howard snapped. "So are you going to fix me or not? I need to discuss some stuff with Albert."

"What?" Albert muttered. He seemed a little out of it.

"Usually you're trying to push bottles into his hands," Lana said, and Howard spread his hands in defeat.

"You got me. I tried to give Orc some whisky and he just smacked me. Just _couldn't _take it." Howard shook his head slowly. "A real tragedy. Think about it, Healer. He was getting weepy, so I figured he should sober up. He didn't agree. Are we done?"

Lana gave him a steely look, and Sanjit nudged her with his shoulder. "C'mon. I want to see if he'll ever cheer up."

"He's as much of an asshole happy as he is annoyed," Lana muttered. But she sighed and turned to Howard. "Where?"

Howard lifted up his shirt and Sanjit winced. Howard didn't want to look down, so he just let Lana trail her fingers over his ribcage and felt an immense relief. He let out a deep breath through his mouth, nose still broken, and Lana healed that as well before turning and stalking out.

"So, my man," Howard said, crouching down in front of Albert, who still looked woozy. "I'm the guy that brought the Healer to you. Pretty cool, right? Pretty deserving of some _comp-en-sa-tion."_

Albert looked at him like he hadn't ever seen him before in his life, and Howard sighed. But Albert did seem to be pulling himself together, bit by bit, and eventually he held out a hand to Howard. Howard pulled him to his feet, and Albert staggered over to his desk and sat down hard in the desk chair.

"It was what's left of the Human Crew," he said. "Lance. Turk. Them. What were you saying?"

"I'm saying, I saved you, I want something out of it," Howard said. Albert opened up his desk and dug around a bit before coming up with a handful of 'Bertos. Also inside? The mold. Howard's eyes were glued to the mold, but Albert didn't notice, so he just took the 'Bertos. "You know, we're pretty similar."

"No," Albert said, shaking his head. "You're a lowlife drug dealer."

"And you're a businessman, what's the difference," Howard said. He stuck the 'Bertos in a pocket of his backpack and turned to head out. He'd bribe Jamal later. Now that he knew where the molds were. Damn, he should get on collecting every bit of gold in Perdido Beach. Who said the only gold stash in town was the stuff that Albert had found in the first place? "We both got oversized bodyguards. Only difference is I pay mine in booze, you pay yours in 'Bertos."

Albert waved a hand to dismiss him, and Howard scowled. He looked like Caine when he did that; when he acted like all of them were below him. And while Howard didn't _exactly _know where Caine was hanging out nowadays – Sanjit had said that he'd taken over the island, and that was fine with Howard, though he didn't know how long Caine was going to be satisfied with only a few subjects – he didn't need another one here, telling him what to do.

…

Council meeting. Howard had gotten there early, just because he didn't really have anywhere else to go. Orc was still AWOL. He'd delivered some bottles that he could reach, but he needed Orc to hold the ladder so that he could crawl over the hole in the floor and get the other ones. And he hadn't been able to get ahold of Jamal to sneak in the back of Albert's house and steal those molds. At least that handful of extra 'Bertos helped to keep him on his feet, because otherwise Howard Bassem would definitely be struggling.

Albert was there next, raising an eyebrow at the sight of Howard, alone, tilting his chair back on two legs and balancing 'Bertos on his knuckles. Then was Edilio, who also gave him a strange look – either because of the early thing, or 'Berto thing, or maybe the fact that Howard's face looked completely fine. Dekka next, slouching in and barely giving Howard a first glance, let alone a second, weird one. And then Ellen, who came in breathless and apologizing for being late.

It was quiet for a little bit.

"So, am I going to have to say it?" Howard asked after a few moments of silence. "All of it? All of the – Drake's out, Orc's missing, what's left of the Human Crew went after Albert, and people are coughing up their lungs? All while we all dehydrate?"

It was quiet again, and then Albert let out a deep sigh.

"We've got another problem," he said. "Hunter has something… wrong with him. His shoulder bit Roscoe the other day."

"Hold up," Howard said, the front two legs of his chair clattering back to the ground. "_More _fucked up stuff to worry about? His _shoulder _bit a kid?"

"Yes," Albert said.

Howard leaned back in his chair again, frowning. He didn't really get all of the mutations that everything but him seemed to be growing – coyotes that could talk, the zekes, people like Sam and Dekka and Orc the Human Pile of Gravel. Zombies. He didn't really try to understand it; it was like this fucked up superhero tale, and everything had its own wacked out origin story. But someone who already had a mutation having something else wrong with him…

Edilio was talking.

"Sam went after Drake," he said. "Brianna did too, so if we can get one of them to get him back, then that would be good."

"Why not let her do her thing and chop him up?" Howard asked. He leaned his chair back farther. "That drove Orc crazy, man. Listening to death threats and begging for death. None of you guys get it. It nearly drove _me _crazy."

"But Brittany-"

"Was just as annoying," Howard said. "I mean, at least Drake would include some _variety _in his death threats. 'I'll whip you until you beg for death, I'll break each finger one-by-one, whip the skin off your back' but Brittany was all 'kill me' and 'God.'"

He paused.

"Come to think of it, Drake was pretty repetitive, too. Either way, let them burn," Howard said. He tipped his chair back farther, guessing that he'd hit the wall sooner or later. Dekka gave him a long look.

"If you've lost Orc, why are you even here?" she asked, and Howard scowled. He tipped the chair back farther. He fell. As he picked himself up, the others resumed their conversation like he hadn't just smacked his head against the ground, and he really wished that he had Orc back. He'd go looking for him after this. Or maybe after whatever they were planning to do with Hunter, or whatever. He could check Coates. Or…

Wait, they were still talking.

Edilio was looking at him like he wanted something.

"Huh? Sorry, just being concussed over here," Howard said. He rubbed his head. "What do you want?"

Ellen muttered something to Dekka, who nodded and pinned Howard with a glare. Howard squirmed a little, uncomfortable.

"I asked, how dangerous is Orc? I heard he hurt you."

"What? Was it from Sanjit? Damn it. That asshole," Howard muttered. He sighed. "I think he'll stay away from people. It's fine. I'll take care of it. Don't worry about it. Isn't that what you want me to say?"

"Is he too mu-"

"He's my best friend," Howard said. Dekka coughed something that sounded suspiciously like 'only friend', and he scowled. Ellen looked between him and Edilio.

"Wait, weren't you two getting kind of close around the time of the fire? Or did I miss something?"

"You missed something," Howard and Edilio said unison. Howard, irritated with everything, stood up and headed for the door.

"Do whatever you want with Hunter, or whatever," he said. "If you need a majority vote, just pretend I voted yes. I need to find Orc."

* * *

**I'd say this isn't the best chapter, but I'm working on where everything'll go next.**


	11. Chapter 10: In Which Opportunities

"For someone who's as wide as he is tall, the dude's hard to find," Howard muttered to himself as he picked his way up to Coates. He'd filled his backpack with empty bottles so that it wouldn't be a complete failure of a trip, even if he did end up not finding Orc there. If he was being completely honest, he had no idea where Orc was. He had an idea that if he actually left the town for more than going to Coates, he might be able to find him, but Drake was still out there. Howard didn't exactly know what Sam was up to, but he guessed he was still chasing after him.

He was about halfway there when Jamal caught up with him.

"Hey, Bassem," Jamal said, and Howard stopped. He turned around, crossing his arms over his chest. He didn't know how he felt about Jamal, except for the slight feeling of trepidation whenever Orc wasn't around. Because, thing was, Jamal was huge. Not as big as Orc, of course, but about twice the size of Howard, at _least. _And Howard generally had a problem with people who were bigger than him. "Albert wants to talk to you."

"Why?" Howard asked. Jamal rolled his eyes and beckoned for Howard to follow him back to town, and Howard shook his head. "I've gotta find Orc, man. If it's something really important, whatever, but otherwise-"

"It's about the water situation," Jamal said, his voice lower than usual. "He was going to have Sam do it but Sam's off chasing Drake. He figured that without Orc around, you can make yourself useful-"

"No," Howard said. He turned around again, but Jamal caught his shoulder and spun him back around. "Seriously – no. I've gotta find Orc. Albert can send someone more useful than me. Dekka. Brianna. Whatever. Just tell him no."

"Look," Jamal said. He was still holding onto Howard's shoulder, no matter how much Howard tried to twist away. "He wants you back there. He told me to get you back there. He's the one that gives me my 'Bertos every week. I'm going to listen to him."

"Yeah, but I'm not," Howard muttered, but he didn't really think he could get away. So he sighed. "What if I said I could get you pineapple?"

Jamal dropped his hand faster than Howard thought possible. "What? How? What the hell are you talking about?"

Howard licked his lips. "Well," he said, speaking carefully, not wanting to spill everything but not quite sure how he could get Jamal some of this without making him suspicious. "I found a can the other day. A big one. I've opened it, there's some gone, but you can have the rest. Just leave me alone, alright? I'll get it to you tomorrow."

Jamal hesitated, but eventually nodded. "I'll tell him I couldn't find you."

"Right," Howard said.

"And you'll get me the pineapple."

"Yep."

"And if you don't-"

"Threats, horrible things, whatever, whatever, I've heard it before," Howard snapped. "Can I go? Because I need to find Orc."

Jamal nodded and turned and headed back to town. Howard didn't wait for him to disappear into the distance before plowing on towards Coates. If he could manage to find Orc before tomorrow, he wouldn't have to give up any of the pineapple. True, with every minute he couldn't find Orc he was feeling more and more panicked and it was seeming less and less likely that it would ever happen, but he could hope, right?

By the time he got to Coates he was pretty sure that he was going to die. He couldn't stop shaking, really – these past few days sans Orc had been stressful, but now that someone had approached him with a new objective, with something that had nothing to _do _with Orc, it was starting to feel so much realer. And his heart was pounding. His heart was pounding so fast and so loud that he was pretty sure that Albert would call bullshit on Jamal's tale on not being able to find Howard because his heartbeat was projecting his location to anyone who wanted it.

But Orc was there.

He thought that he wasn't at first, that he'd just been there, because every bit of alcohol that Orc could possibly find was gone, but then he went out back and there was the kid himself, sleeping with one hand still curled around a bottle. Howard dropped his backpack, not caring that the bottles inside broke, and headed over to him. Orc didn't move as he got closer, which was probably to be expected – Howard didn't, exactly, know how drunk the guy was, but the answer was probably _very _– so he just dropped to the ground as soon as he got close enough to definitely hear it if Orc tried to leave and collapsed and slept.

…

Someone was shaking his shoulder.

"Few more minutes," he muttered, pushing his face into his arms.

"Howard."

"Orc?" Howard muttered, sitting up. Orc was sitting down beside him, frowning. "Oh. Hey, man. You woke up."

"Why are you here?"

"I wasn't gonna stop looking for you," Howard said. Orc's frown deepened. "Don't give me that look. Did you really think-"

He cut himself off. He didn't want to hear the answer. Orc was just looking at him with big unbelieving eyes and he didn't want to hear the answer.

"I wouldn't," Howard said. His mouth was dry. He wished he'd have taken some water from that storeroom. "I wouldn't have stopped looking for you. I didn't. Orc, man, you're the only person I've got. I-"

He cut himself off again, but this time because there was a lump rising in his throat and he didn't want to cry. Orc was still looking at him like that, like he didn't believe him, and it made Howard feel worse than anything ever. He wanted to keep talking because he wanted to convince Orc but he didn't want to keep talking because he felt like nothing he said would make a damn difference.

"I killed a kid," Orc said.

"Yeah, so? I took care of it. I told you that," Howard said. He pulled his knees up to his chest, resting his chin in the little crevice between them. "It's fine. Nobody knows. Just you and me, big guy."

"I hurt you," Orc said.

"It's fine," Howard said. He glanced up and tried to meet Orc's eyes but couldn't. It was a weird situation. Because he was still a little scared of Orc because of that, but when Orc wasn't around he felt like he was about to die. "Man, it's happened once. It's not like some big thing. Right?"

"I can't go back," Orc said.

"Sure you can," Howard said. "You have to. Come on. Without you, what am I supposed to do?"

"It's not about you," Orc said. "It's about that kid. And Bette-"

"Man, are you _still on about that?" _Howard said, knocking Orc's hand off of his shoulder and jumping to his feet. "That was – that was _months ago! _Man, nearly everyone's killed someone since then. Sam, Edilio – hell, Brianna runs around talking about how much she wants to slice up Drake. Like, that's her idea of a fun conversation. So chill out about it! It's fine!"

"You don't get it," Orc said. He shook his head. He was so calm that it made Howard angry. "Bette didn't do anything wrong. They kill the bad guys. I am the bad guy."

"No, you're not!" Howard said. He could feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyes and pounded a fist into his palm. "You're not! You're fine! It's all fine! Why can't we just go home?"

"You can," Orc said. He was still so calm. Defeated. Howard's chest was tight. "You didn't kill nobody."

"I can't go back without you," Howard said. Orc glanced up at him, then looked back at the ground.

"You'll find someone else to protect you," he said.

"Do you really think that's all it is?" Howard said. His voice broke. "Is that really all everyone thinks it is?"

"Isn't it? I know you say you like me, Howard, but it gets a little hard to believe sometimes," Orc said. "Like when you and Edilio were close. You were never around then unless you needed me for something. I don't – I don't really notice much, but I notice when you're not around."

"That's over," Howard said. He wondered if he should tell Orc. He was pretty sure that Orc didn't understand anything to do with that, he was pretty sure that Orc didn't even know that Dekka was a lesbian, and the girl wasn't subtle.

He gave the thought just a little consideration and then almost laughed at himself for considering it. He shook his head, annoyed with himself. He repeated, "That's over."

Orc gave him this look that he couldn't meet. He balled his hands into fists and shoved them into his pockets, staring down at his shoes. He didn't want to be in this situation. He just wanted it all to be like it had been before. Before everything had gone to Hell.

* * *

**So, I'm feeling a pre-FAYZ flashback to start out next chapter.**


	12. Chapter 11: In Which Flashbacks

_They're at Howard's house, because they're always at Howard's house. The longest amount of time that Howard's ever been at Orc's is about ten to fifteen minutes. Ten to fifteen minutes of fidgeting with hands in pockets and head ducked because Orc's dad is scary as hell. Because Howard met his eyes once and never wants to again. _

_ But they're at Howard's, in his room at three in the morning trying to stay quiet enough so that the parents don't come in and tell them to go to sleep. Howard's got a decent collection of comic books, but his real pride and joy is the X-box hooked up to the tiny little TV that used to be in the living room before they got the flat-screen. Problem is, Howard's a lot better at video games than Orc and Orc makes a lot of noise when he loses so Howard's playing like shit on purpose (though he's steadily getting worse as the hour grows later) and it's not any fun. But he doesn't want to go to sleep and Orc wants to play video games so he lets his mind wander while hitting random buttons. _

_ After this last defeat, he drops the controller and rolls onto his back. They're both lying on the floor, carpet patterns pressed into the skin of their elbows and an empty bag of Doritos in front of them. Orc glances at him. _

_ "What?" he says, and Howard presses his forearm into his eyes. _

_ "Man, I'm sick of this," he says. Orc nudges him with an elbow and Howard glances over at him. When Orc doesn't talk right away, Howard gets annoyed, his usual tolerance with Orc minimized by the late hour. "What?"_

_ "Can I come over next weekend?"_

_ "We talked about this," Howard says. "I got a wedding to go to. And, no offense, but you're not exactly invited. They don't know you. I barely know them. My mom's cousin, or something."_

_ "Then why are you going?"_

_ "Because I have to," Howard says. He stares up at the ceiling. He feels really weird saying no to Orc when Orc wants to stay over. He'd only seen the guy's dad hit him once, and he'd been pretty sure that Orc's dad hadn't really know he'd been there – they'd stopped at Orc's house so that Orc could drop off his backpack because he didn't want to carry it around, and Howard had stood in the entryway shifting from foot-to-foot and on the way back from his room Orc had knocked into something breakable and the father had come out of nowhere and smacked him. Orc had just kept going, and grabbed Howard, who was watching all of this with wide eyes and hands that were sort of starting to shake. _

_ So long story short, he feels like he needs to say yes whenever Orc wants to stay over. _

_ "Hey, Howard," Orc says, turning over onto his back with a grunt. Howard glances at him. He's looking straight at Howard, a sort of bemused expression on his face. "Some of the guys say you only hang out with me 'cause you'll get beat up otherwise."_

_ Howard snorts. "Someone actually said that?"_

_ "Yeah," Orc says. He looks uncomfortable. Howard's sure as hell feeling uncomfortable, and not just because it's totally true. "I told him to shut up. That he was wrong. That's right, right? That you don't just hang out with me 'cause you'll get beat up otherwise?"_

_ "'course," Howard says. "Man, you're my best friend. Don't overthink it."_

_ "Did you get beat up a lot when you were little?"_

_ "Do I look like someone who got beat up a lot when I was little?"_

_ "Yeah," Orc says. He looks pointedly at Howard, who is at least six inches shorter and forty pounds lighter than Orc. Howard scowls. _

_ Howard shakes his head. "This is stupid," he says. He stretches, wincing a little when his back popped. "You want me to sneak down and grab some more chips? I'm starved."_

_ "Okay," Orc says. He sits up with his back against Howard's bed and peruses the comics that they'd abandoned at the beginning of the night, and Howard shakes his head and heads out, shivering a little at the blast of air-conditioning that seems to reach everywhere but his room. He tiptoes downstairs and toward the kitchen; he really doesn't want to wake up his parents, not at all-_

_ There's a thud from the stairs and Howard winces. _

_ A few minutes later Orc's face is visible in the moonlight from the kitchen window. Howard shakes his head. _

_ "The idea was that you were going to stay in my room," Howard hisses, and Orc shrugs. He doesn't say anything to defend himself, so Howard just rolls his eyes and goes to cabinet-hunting. Maybe his parents slept through it. Maybe they won't wake up and come down and chew them out. Maybe those footsteps coming down the stairs aren't them. _

_ The kitchen light flicks on and there's his mother, a bathrobe wrapped around her. She just looks at Howard, who shifts ever-so-slightly to stand a little bit behind Orc. "It is three in the morning," she says. "You should be asleep."_

_ "C'mon, mom" Howard says. "It's-"_

_ "Three in the morning. It is three in the morning."_

_ "Well, yeah, but-"_

_ She ignores him and turns to Orc. "Why don't you go upstairs? I'd like to talk to Howard alone."_

_ Orc leaves before he can see Howard's 'please stay here' stare. _

_ "Sit down."_

_ It's not a request. Howard sits. _

_ "I heard your conversation," his mother starts, and that's when he drops his head to the table, his forehead making a dull _thunk. _He doesn't want to talk about this with anyone, let alone his _mother. _He'd take anything over what's happening right now. _

_ "So?" he mutters, and his mother rubs his back and he jerks away. She sighs and he keeps his head on the table and thinks that if he stays like this for any longer he's going to fall asleep._

_ "Do you think that maybe you could find a better friend? One that you actually like?"_

_ Howard groans. "Mom, I like Orc. Orc's my friend. And, anyway, the answer is 'no.' I cannot find a better friend, because the only one stupid enough to be my friend is him. Can I go?"_

_ His mother hesitates and he lifts his head off the table, his vision a little blurry because wow he's exhausted, but she nods and he goes upstairs and Orc's passed out on the floor so he throws a spare blanket over him and turns off the light and gets into bed, falling asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow._

…

Howard didn't know how he did it, but Orc followed him back to town without too much of a fight. They even got some work done, which is a lot more than Howard was expecting. And Orc just picked up the bottles when they were done, so Howard has a spring in his step that he wasn't expecting to have.

They didn't talk much on the way home. It was awkward, really awkward, after that last conversation. It's not like it was the first time they'd had that conversation, but Orc normally dropped it after that initial question. Howard tried to focus on better things, like the fact now he didn't have to give Jamal shit and now they could get the rest of the booze in the cabinets, but it was hard. It was really hard.

Orc hesitated once they got to the edge of Perdido Beach. Howard didn't notice until he was about six steps ahead of him, and the realized that he wasn't hearing the heavy _thud_s of Orc's steps. He turned around. "C'mon," he said. "Shit's crazy without you around."

Orc followed him. Howard, who was still freaked out by the 'quarantine' thing and the resulting quietness that pervaded the town, kept talking.

"So, I was thinking we get our hands on a ladder, right? And then you hold one edge and I crawl over that hole in the floor so that we can get our hands on the stuff that's in the cabinets we can't get to. And then we figure out where we want to live, because I don't want to live in a place where I keep expecting death threats."

Orc stayed quiet. Howard wondered how drunk he still was, and kept talking.

"A lot of stuff happened," he said. "Albert nearly died. What's rest of the Human Crew, you know, going after him now. Apparently. I don't really get it, but whatever. Makes me glad you're back, though."

They reached their house with the door still hanging off the hinges and Jamal sitting outside. Howard guessed that it was the next day; he totally could have just slept the rest of the day and the entire night, but he'd been too focused on finding Orc to really care about time. But when Jamal saw him, he jumped to his feet.

"Where is it?" he asked, and Howard quirked an eyebrow.

"Where's what?"

"Don't be an idiot. The pineapple."

"What? There is no pineapple," Howard said. He grinned, confident with Orc behind him. Jamal took a step toward him, and Howard crossed his arms. "Really? Did you really think I was telling the truth there?"

"You-" Jamal took a swing at him. It didn't connect. In the next few seconds, Jamal was on the ground clutching his arm, which was pointed in a way that it definitely should not be. Orc stood in front of Howard, his big gravel hands balled up into fists. Jamal let out a choked sob. "You – you just – you-"

Howard crouched down beside Jamal. This was what felt good. This, Orc's back and he could say whatever the hell he wanted to whoever the hell he wanted feeling. "Hey," he said. "A little word of advice, brother. When Orc's around, you don't mess with me. You don't even try."

Jamal tried to push himself to his feet but only managed to get to his knees. Tears were leaking out of his eyes and Howard's stomach rolled a little when he saw bone sticking out of his arm. But he kept the grin plastered on his face because even though the sight of the bone sickened him, the sight of Jamal's tears did not.

"I'm gonna go in," Orc rumbled, pushing past Jamal, sending him back to the ground, and marching up the steps to their house. Howard nimbly lept over Jamal's legs and followed. It was all good now. Orc was back. Drake was not in their basement. And, hell, maybe he'd be able to forget how it felt to kiss Edilio Escobar.

* * *

**Okay, so I'm in a big Fall Out Boy mood right now, and it's like, "I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth" works wonders for Howard and Orc, so that's what I've been listening to on repeat for the duration of working on this chapter.**


	13. Chapter 12: In Which Monologues

The ladder shifted and Howard clutched the rungs, his heart pounding so hard he was pretty sure it would bring the house down around them. "Hold _onto _it," he hissed, and Orc muttered an apology. Howard continued moving to the end, pulling himself forward rung by rung with a large bag hanging over one of his shoulders. He hoped he could get this done in one trip.

He fumbled with the lock, but eventually got it open and tossed the padlock into the basement. He emptied the cabinet and pushed himself backward to do the next one, wincing a little at the discomfort. But he emptied that cabinet, too, and then waved his hand for Orc to pull it back.

Orc pulled and the ladder tilted downward. Howard had never been particularly religious, but at this moment he was clutching the ladder and muttering out prayers more intensely than he'd ever done anything in his life. The bag clanked and caught against the side of the hole and Howard thought for a brief, terrifying second that he was going to be pulled over when Orc grabbed it and lifted it (and as a result, him) completely onto solid ground.

"Well," Howard said, taking a deep breath and straightening out his shirt. "That was horrible."

"Are we going to find a new house?" Orc asked. He was looking at the bag of booze in his hand like he didn't know whether he wanted to down it all or throw it away. Howard wondered if he should try and take it, but then Orc just turned and walked out, the bag still in his hand. Howard muttered curses, but figured that most everything he needed – all the 'Bertos he had to his name, food, a knife – was in his backpack, so he just followed.

Edilio was outside, and Howard stumbled to a stop.

"What do you want?" he asked. Edilio didn't look good. He was pale, and a little shivery, but he answered with as much conviction as he always did.

"So you're back," he said, speaking directly to Orc. Orc nodded. Howard really hoped that Edilio wasn't going to talk about that dead kid. He didn't want to have to calm Orc down again, or chase him down again, but Edilio didn't mention it. "Are you two finding a new place to live?"

"Yeah," Howard said, moving in front of Orc. Edilio wouldn't look him straight in the eye and it was driving him crazy. "Did you just come to wish us a happy move? Maybe help us pack boxes and drive a U-Haul a block or two? No? Then why?"

Edilio took a deep breath. "Jamal's complaining and Sam's back sans Drake and I'm having a _really _bad day," he said. Howard smirked.

"Don't you have someone to help you with that?" he said, and Edilio flushed. Orc looked between the two of them, completely oblivious.

"What I'm trying to say is – Orc, they want you to patrol. We think Sam and Brianna chased him out of town, but…"

"No," Orc said. He crossed his big arms in front of his chest. "I never wanted to be no jailer. I don't want to do this."

Edilio grimaced and glanced at Howard, who quirked an eyebrow. Edilio took a deep breath.

"Can I talk to Howard alone, then?" he asked, and Howard reached over and pulled a bottle out of the bag. He opened it up and handed it to Orc.

"Sit down, have a drink, I'll be back," he said. "Probably."

Edilio rolled his eyes but led Howard a few houses down from Orc, who sat down heavily on the front lawn and tipped the bottle to his mouth. Up close, Edilio looked even worse – and his grip on Howard's arm wasn't as strong as it usually was.

"Make Orc do it," Edilio said. He sounded tired. Hell, he looked tired – he was paler than usual, almost cheesy-looking, with dark bags under his eyes. Howard felt like he shouldn't be standing so close to the guy and tried to slide a step farther away.

"Nobody makes Orc do anything," Howard said. He tried to slide away again, but Edilio's fingers dug insistently into his upper arm. "But _maybe, _if you-"

"Damn it, Howard, I'll do whatever you want, but after it's all over. After this sickness is done. After Sam comes back. After it's all taken care of, then we can negotiate. Alright? Right now I just need you to do it because it needs to be done. I know it's probably stupid to expect the Howard that showed up at the fire, but I want maybe that Howard's cousin. Alright?"

His grip slackened and he coughed into his fist a few times. Howard took a few steps back, his mouth dry. He tried to speak but couldn't quite find the words he was looking for. His tongue darted out and licked his lips, and Edilio coughed a few more times. They were bad coughs. The kind that brought up phlegm, or if you were to listen to the grapevine, lungs.

"Who says you're going to survive the sickness?" Howard asked. Edilio waved a hand.

"I'm fine," he said, his voice rough. "I need to be."

Howard hesitated again and stared up. "I-" he cut himself off. "Fine. Fine, wetback. But you owe me. Right? You owe me. I'll convince Orc to do it, but you owe me."

"I'd say we're about even," Edilio muttered, but he turned and hobbled away, skinny arms hugging a skinny torso, and Howard rubbed his temples. He'd gone soft. He'd gone soft and he'd developed some goddam feelings.

Sighing, he headed back to convince Orc to do some patrolling for Drake. At least they wouldn't lose their weekly paycheck, right?

…

Howard slid between the wall and the fridge, stumbling into the storeroom to find it already occupied.

The Artful Roger sat crosslegged on the floor, morosely picking at a can of pineapple. Howard had no clue how the dude could be morose while eating pineapple; he figured that his bad mood would just wash away with a full stomach, but Edilio's illness probably had something to do with it. So he just sat down across from him and reached in a hand.

"Edilio's sick," Roger said.

"I know," Howard said.

"Oh," Roger said.

They dropped into silence, Howard contemplating his new life. He hadn't moved Orc very far away from their old house, just far enough so that they couldn't see it anymore. Every morning, Orc grabbed a bottle and left. Howard didn't know how often he went back to the house; he'd been spending a hell of a lot of time figuring out better ways to run his, ah, business. As well as that, he'd spent a few days staking out Albert's house. The whole 'bribe Jamal with booze' thing wasn't going to work now that whenever Jamal saw him there was a threat and a glance over the shoulder in case of Orc.

He wondered if he could commission this art dude to paint him a 'Beware of Orc' sign. That'd be funny.

"You care about him, don't you?"

Howard jumped. "Huh? Who?"

"Edilio," Roger said. Funny, Edilio had been the farthest thing from Howard's mind at the moment. "I mean, if there was nothing between you, you wouldn't be avoiding each other's eyes."

"Nah," Howard said, shaking his head. "I mean, making out with someone for a while and then bam! Boyfriend on one side, alcoholic rock friend on the other, it's awkward, man. Stop freaking out about it. I couldn't steal your boyfriend if I wanted to."

"Right," Roger said. He shifted a little. "I want to take some water up to him. He's… he's really bad right now. Shivering on the steps to the hospital-"

"The _steps? _Why the hell haven't they taken him inside?"

"Er, space, or something, but-"

"_Space? _Lemme guess, they've got a bunch of useless little shits in there while _Edilio fucking Escobar _dies on the steps. What the hell? I didn't think they were that stupid! Shit, I-"

It was then that Howard remembered that he didn't really have any authority whatsoever. But he was sitting up straight, one of his hands curled so tightly around a piece of pineapple that it was now more a pineapple pancake than a pineapple cube. Roger was looking at him with something akin to wonder in his eyes, and Howard sucked in a breath between his teeth and slumped backward.

"R-right," he said. "Edilio. Shivering, steps, don't care."

"Okay," Roger said. He looked like he was about to burst out laughing, and Howard would have hit him had he not thought art-boy could beat him. It was silent for a bit, and then Roger spoke again. "So, I heard you got Jamal mad at you."

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Howard said, waving a hand. Then he frowned. "Wait, how do you know Jamal? Pot-smoking buddies?"

"You and Edilio didn't seem like a likely friendship, either," Roger said, his voice dry, and Howard flinched.

"Touché," he said. "So, anyway. Yeah. Promised him something, found Orc, backed out. The usual."

"You know, one day that might not happen," Roger said. He shifted so that he was sitting in a more casual position, one knee up and an elbow resting on top, holding a bottle of water. "Someone might decide they don't care, or…"

"Or Orc'll be dead? Or abandon me?" Howard said. He snorted. "Nah, man. Orc's not going to die. He's motherfucking Orc, right? Man of gravel. And I'm not scared of Jamal. He's an idiot who believed me when I said I had pineapple."

"You do have pineapple."

"Very true," Howard said. "But Jamal wasn't in Caine Soren's inner circle. I happen to find my best talent to be worming my way into inner circles."

"Yeah, you are weirdly good at that, aren't you? That and naming stuff."

"Yeah," Howard said. "I've got my talents. Worming into inner circles, naming stuff, pissing off Astrid. All worthwhile habits."

They looked at each other, silent, for a few moments, and then both of them burst into laughter. Deep down, Howard figured it was weird as hell to be laughing his ass off with Edilio Escobar's boyfriend, but he couldn't really help it. The dude wasn't bad.

No, the dude wasn't bad.

And that really sucked, man. That really sucked.

* * *

**So this was fun. I feel like updates might slow down? I've got a system on this now. And IDK how much fanfiction-ing will be happening again. So IDK. But this is fun as hell, man.**


	14. Chapter 13: In Which Sick Edilio

Howard was coming back from another eat-canned-food-with-Roger-and-bitch-about-stuff session when Lance caught up to him. Howard wasn't exactly keen on Lance, especially considering the fact that his usual security system was wandering around somewhere, keeping watch for Drake, but there wasn't much he could do but hope that the dude didn't want to kill him.

"What?" he asked, adjusting his backpack.

"So, Orc's back," Lance said, and Howard raised an eyebrow.

"Really? I hadn't noticed," he said. "What do you want?"

"I want to know why you-" Lance said, poking his finger hard into Howard's chest. Howard took a few steps back. "-threatened Jamal."

"Is Jamal really still hanging around you guys? Does he still have his bodyguard thing, or is he just really good at keeping his home and work life separate? And why the hell do you care, anyway? The dude went after me, and Orc smacked him. That's what happens when people go after me."

"Orc's not here now, is he?"

Howard's mouth dried up, but he tried to keep his voice even. "I'll tell him who it was. And then he'll-"

They were interrupted by Turk, running toward them, waving his gun in the air. Howard had no clue how these guys had managed to continue living in town after their little Albert stint – though he guessed it was probably better for Hunter that they didn't go out into the woods – but there Turk was, still fully armed and still an idiot.

"Lance! Lance! There's something freaky going on!"

"Like what?" Lance asked, turning away from Howard, who was torn between escaping and hearing what this 'freaky' thing was. In his experience, 'freaky' either meant 'something that would kill him' or 'something really, really great', so it was a tough decision. But eventually he just pressed his back flat against a house and watched, eyes wide.

"There's a raincloud," Turk said. He grinned, his mouth twisting into something uglier than Orc. "Right above Astrid the Genius's house."

Lance was off before Howard could blink. Howard supposed that he should get someone to go and help out, because anywhere that Lance went probably wasn't anything good, but if Edilio was sick he had no clue what to do.

Then again, if Edilio was just on the front steps of the hospital, Howard could probably ask him.

He headed for the hospital, wincing a little as he got closer to the sound of coughing. He wondered if he would end up catching it, then decided that he was being so damn stupid that he probably would. Really, if he was smart, he'd just grab a bucket, go get some rainwater, and then ride it out while eating pineapple. But, no, instead he was going for Edilio-fucking-Escobar. Again.

He stopped at the bottom of the steps, shying away when a coughing kid nearly ran into him. "Hey! Edilio!"

Edilio lifted his head, coughed into his elbow, and frowned. "What?"

"Er, I don't really know who to tell if you're sick, but I figure I'll just tell you anyway – there's a raincloud above Astrid's house and Lance and the Bigots are heading over there with guns."

Edilio muttered something under his breath and used his gun to push himself into a standing position. Howard blinked a few times and held his hands out, shaking his head.

"Woah, woah, no. That was not me saying this so that you would get up and kill yourself. That was me saying this because anyone who would want to stop this is on your good side," he said. Edilio rolled his eyes and coughed. "Seriously, dude. You're going to hurt yourself."

"Why do you care?" Edilio snapped, and Howard jumped, and then sighed.

"You know what? Fine. Work yourself to death. Keep going even when _you've got this fucking – this supernatural death cough shit, dumbass."_

"Someone has to take care of them," Edilio said. He took a few halting steps, using his gun as a walking stick. Howard really wondered how well that was going to work out and considered for half a second giving him a helping hand. Then he took two big steps back and decided to wait it out. "Are you planning on doing that?"

"Er, no," Howard said. "Orc's somewhere around, but not close enough, and I have a knife. And if I try and stab one of them, they'll probably kill me. You know, because nobody's taken away their guns, even though they're turning into the fucking KKK."

Edilio sighed. It turned into a cough, but he just started down the steps anyway. Howard hesitated, stepping forward like he was going to help for a second and then stepping back again. It was weird with Edilio – because with Orc, if he was ever in danger, man, Howard panicked. He'd do _anything _to try and help in any way he could. But Edilio… the impulse was there. The impulse to go for it and help out and shit, that was there, but he also kept his senses. His 'you'll die, if you do that, asshole' senses.

So he just watched as Edilio stumbled down the steps and made his way toward Astrid's house. Howard followed at a safe distance, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. Maybe he should go get Roger or something. That dude would lift Edilio on his back, or something. Maybe Orc. Could Orc catch a cough? Fuck, he didn't even want to think about that. He'd leave Orc where he was. Edilio would probably be at the place by the time Howard found Orc, anyway.

By the time they got to Astrid's house, though, Edilio breathing with a sort of raggedness to it that made Howard really, really nervous. He didn't know if he should split or not –

Oh, shit, Human Crew was going after Astrid. He really should have gotten Orc involved in this. Orc'd do anything for Astrid, as annoying as it was. Man, it had been worse before the FAYZ, because when it got late Orc would start rambling and rambling and Howard would be trying to get those stupid feelings for his best friend out of there.

…

_"Dude, can you stop staring at your math book like it's the best thing in the world?" Howard says. "You hate math."_

_ "Yeah," Orc says. He won't stop staring at the math book. The stupid math book. Howard sighs and takes a sip of his slushie. He'd sort of hung out around the school, waiting for Orc to get out of his tutoring, and he'd stopped in at a gas station to buy one. He'd considered buying one for Orc, and he can't really decide if he was right in not doing so because Orc is being annoying, or if he should have, because then Orc might be paying attention to him. _

_ "So, who's your tutor?" he says. He swings his feet idly; the two of them are sitting on top of the jungle gym, little kids clustered around the bottom and looking up at them. Howard sucks some slushie into the straw and then pulls it out of the cup, dropping it on a five-year-old. _

_ The kid makes some noise and left. _

_ "Astrid," Orc says. Howard raises an eyebrow._

_ "Astrid the Genius, Astrid?"_

_ "Yeah," Orc says. _

_ "So… did she like, hypnotize you or something? Because that shouldn't change the fact that you're still looking at your math book like a weirdo," Howard says. Orc keeps his hand on the math book, keeping it balanced on top. Both of their backpacks are on the ground underneath them. Nobody will touch them. Howard wonders where Panda or Cookie or someone is. Usually he prefers being alone with Orc than with either one of them, because he knows how to work Orc and he's pretty sure he knew how to be himself around Orc without Orc breaking his nose, but right now it's just annoying. _

_ "She's – pretty," Orc says. He glances away, blushing a little. Howard groans and knocks his forehead against a piece of metal and takes another drink of his slushie. Ooh, an older kid. Howard sucks up some more slushie and sends it straight down onto John Terrafino, who yelps and glances up. Howard gives him a sarcastic little wave and blowslew some more at him, trying to ignore the stupid little twinge in his stomach. _

_ "Yeah, so?" Howard says. He doesn't see the appeal. Sure, he guesses, aesthetically speaking, whatever. She doesn't make him want to puke when he looks at her. But he doesn't want her. "Dude, you're being weird. Want the rest of my slushie?"_

_ Orc takes it, like he always does if he's offered food, and drinks it straight from the cup. John Terrafino visibly relaxes, and Howard laughs a little. _

_ "Hey, you wanna go see what he has on him?" Howard says. "I don't see parents or anything, and he looks too happy that the slushie's gone."_

_ "Okay," Orc says, finally looking away from his math book and dropping down to the ground. Howard follows suit, grinning. It's fine. The stupid crush Orc had on Astrid the Genius will leave soon enough, and then Howard won't have to battle for attention anymore. _

* * *

**So this is fun.**


	15. Chapter 14: In Which Bad Stuff Happens

Edilio didn't even hesitate. He just straight-up shot Turk in the shoulder, and Turk went down screaming. Howard took a step back, eyes wide, and Edilio set his sights on Lance. He didn't even look back as he spoke-

"Go get Orc."

"Right," Howard croaked, turning and sprinting. He heard Edilio cough again and he hard the gun go off again, and he kept sprinting. He was about three blocks away, heading for their house because maybe it was about the time for Orc's midday booze break, when something snaked around his leg and set him thudding to the ground, his teeth snapping painfully around his tongue and all of the air rushing out of him.

He took a huge breath and turned to see what it was, because he didn't like the feel of _something _slimy around his ankle, because there was really only one thing in the FAYZ that could feel like that.

Drake.

"Hey, Howard," Drake said. Howard swallowed hard, blood from his tongue and fear the only things he could taste. "Fancy running into you."

His heart was beating so hard and fast he felt like he was having a heart attack.

"U-u-uh," Howard said. "I- uh – w-we can, I can, you don't want to do this, I can help you out, dude. Whatever you need. I gotcha, man."

"Hm…" Drake said, letting go of Howard's ankle. Howard struggled to his hands and knees, but Drake's knee on his back forced him back to the ground and forced all of the air out of his lungs for the second time in about two minutes. "See, there is one thing I need help with. But I really don't think you're up to the task."

"I can do it, I can-"

"No, see, because I think she could fight you off," Drake said. The tentacle that formed his whip arm touched Howard's cheek softly, lovingly, almost. Howard flinched away. "But maybe if you could give me a good idea of who I could use, and where I could find them, I might whip you within an inch to your death instead of to your death. Then you might have a chance of living. Or you might just suffer a little longer than most."

"H-huh?" Howard asked. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe and the tentacle was still stroking his cheek. "What do you need, Drake?"

"I need someone who can keep Brittany in check," Drake said. "Someone who can tie her up when she shows up. Got any ideas?"

Someone to tie up Brittany, someone strong, then. The idea flitted in Howard's head immediately and he nodded furiously.

"Jamal," he said.

"Jamal?"

"B-big guy, Albert's bodyguard. He's at Albert's house now, or maybe at home-" It took Howard a while to remember where Jamal lived, but he'd delivered there before, so eventually he was able to rattle off instructions.

"You know, I think I remember him now," Drake said, nodding a few times. "Thanks, Howard. You're a useful little guy sometimes."

Drake stood up and the tentacle disappeared from Howard's cheek. Howard screwed his eyes shut, clenching his hands into fists to try and prepare himself.

It didn't help. When the first lash of the whip came down, it didn't prepare him at all. He'd been whipped by Drake before, once before, one time, but when Drake was right above him and going with all of his might, over and over and over, the pain clouded over everything and Howard was barely aware of how much he was screaming and begging and _oh holy fuck. _

Then he heard a grunt and it all stopped. Howard took as deep of a breath as he could and let it out all shuddery. His face was soaked with tears and sweat and his nose was running and he could only breathe in little gasps, because anything deeper hurt like a motherfucker.

"Howard?" A deep voice, a slow voice, an _Orc _voice. Oh thank god.

He heard Drake groan and then a stomp and a sick _squelch. _He squinted through the tears and turned his head to see Drake's body staggering around without a fully formed head and his stomach contracted. He felt large hands on his shoulders, pulling him up, and then he was in Orc's arms and it hurt but it was better now because Orc was here, right? That made it better, right?

"O-O-" he couldn't quite finish it, he let it go with a sob and Orc clutched him tighter. It hurt.

"I'll take you to Lana," Orc said.

"Hospital," Howard gasped. "She's – she's-"

He broke off again, but he thought that Orc had probably gotten it, because he set off at the sort of lumbering run he had now, one that wasn't very fast but still worked. Howard managed to hope that he wouldn't fall over.

But the next thing he knew he was on his stomach and the pain was disappearing, a little at a time. He let his eyes flutter shut and he managed to remember what Edilio had told him to do before completely losing consciousness.

"Go t'Astrid's," he said, his voice weak. "Deely-O said..."

…

He woke up on a couch that he was pretty sure he'd woken up on before.

There was a kid about six inches away from his face, staring at him. He was probably about five or six, and was clutching a toy truck in his arms. Howard frowned. The kid turned around and ran, and Howard closed his eyes. He wanted to go back to sleep. He wanted Orc. He wanted to know where he was.

"I thought you said he was awake?"

Oh, hell, it was Roger. That's where he was, that stupid house that he'd shown up at after he'd gotten shitfaced. He groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. He wondered why the hell he was there, when the hell he'd gotten there, and then he remembered Drake and pain and his heart jumped up into his throat.

"Oh. He is."

He squinted at Roger, who was standing with the kid a few feet away. "Yeah. He is."

"I thought it would be good for you to stay here until Orc gets back," Roger said. The kid was clutching one of his legs and looking at Howard like he didn't want to be alone with him. "Are you okay with that?"

"Whatever," Howard muttered. He pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead and swallowed. "Where's Orc?"

"He… went to do something," Roger said. He didn't seem to really know himself. "I don't really know much about it. Edilio knows more, but… he's been… he's been staying away from here since he's gotten sick. So he doesn't get Justin sick."

"Who the hell is Justin?"

The kid made a noise. Oh. That made sense.

Howard, suddenly not really willing to deal with anything, slumped back on the couch. He propped his feet back up on the other side and groaned, putting an arm over his eyes. "My house burned down in the fire," he said, abruptly changing the subject.

"Mine too," Justin said, his thumb making it up to his mouth. Howard ignored the kid. He didn't want to talk about this because he wanted to hear some dumb kid's input. He wanted to talk about this because he didn't want to think about what had just happened.

"And, I mean, it's not like I ever slept there – even before me and Orc were relocated," Howard said. "It was just… weird. I don't think anyone sleeps in their original house, do they?"

"Don't think so," Roger said. He sat down on the floor. Justin sat on his lap, driving the truck around on the floor. "Why?"

"Because I could really go for some of my comics right now," Howard said. He glanced over at Roger, who had a small smile on his face. "Man, if there was anything I wanted right now, besides, you know, not being here, it would be something to distract me."

"Marvel or DC?"

"Dude, are you kidding me? Marvel," Howard said. Roger laughed.

"Thought so," he said. Howard continued. It had been forever that he'd talked about something like this.

"Avengers are overrated, though. X-men are fine. My favorite's-"

"Let me guess," Roger said, shifting Justin off of his lap to sit on the floor and massaging his thigh. "You like Marvel, but you don't like the Avengers. So that pretty much rules out Iron Man, though I was sort of pegging you as a Stark fan. So I'm gonna have to say…"

He glanced at Justin.

"Drumroll, please."

Justin tapped his toy truck and Howard groaned. "Just say the damn name," he muttered.

"Deadpool."

Howard was quiet. "Yeah."

"Thought so," Roger said, beaming. Howard sighed. The guy was ruining this for him, seriously. There he was, trying to distract himself from the fact that he'd nearly been whipped to death, and this guy was just smiling like nothing had happened. Maybe it was kind of hypocritical of him, but he didn't really care.

"So, Orc's off with Astrid?" he asked. Roger shrugged.

"I think so," he said. "Last I heard, they were heading away from Astrid's house with her little brother in tow."

Howard pushed himself up on one elbow, watching Roger talk and trying to pick out exactly what it was that Edilio saw in him. He had blond hair, and it was long, like everyone's hair – and he was generally pretty calm, and goofy, and when he smiled he was, admittedly, kind of cute, and given the fact that he smiled all of the time…

Howard snorted. Yeah, there was really no way he could compete against this.

"What?" Roger asked.

"Huh? Oh. Thinking about why our pal Edilio liked you," Howard said, and Roger frowned. He tapped Justin's shoulder.

"Go play in your room," he said. Justin was off without a complaint, which Howard found to be extremely annoying. What right did this dude have to have kids listen to him? The nerve of some people. "What did you come up with?"

"You're nice," Howard said after a brief pause. "And… not bad-looking when you smile."

"Not bad-looking? I think from you, that's a compliment," Roger said, grinning, and Howard glanced away. Was it ridiculous that he was starting to crush on both of them? Goddam, how many crushes could one person _have _at one time? He was pretty sure there was a limit. He was pretty sure there was a limit and he was pretty sure that he'd surpassed it.

He stood up.

"I'm gonna go home," he said. Roger stood up, too, and Howard wondered why everyone was fucking taller than him. Hell, give the kid with the toy truck a few more months and he'd probably be there, too. "It'll be fine."

"But Drake-"

"But who gives a fuck," Howard said. "I'll be fine, art-boy." _He said he was leaving me alive. _"I don't think I'll run into trouble." _Because I told him to go for Jamal. _"I just want to sleep in a bed instead of on your couch. That kid freaks me out." _Woah there Howard, don't you dare-_

Too late. He was kissing The Artful Roger.

* * *

**So, that last bit is sort of disjointed, but we got the important part in, so that's good.**


	16. Chapter 15: In Which Howard Goes Home

Kissing Roger was a lot different than kissing Edilio. Roger was softer, and Roger was less insistent, and Roger had just taken a huge step back.

"Oh, shit," Howard muttered, bringing a hand up to his mouth. "Shit, god damn it, it's like once you get the first fucking taste you go for it every chance you got. Oh, shit."

"Er-" Roger said. There was a funny little smile on his face. "Why don't you – go, like you'd planned."

"Yeah," Howard said. His voice cracked. He swallowed. "I didn't mean to do that. It was an accident."

"How do you accidentally kiss someone?" Roger asked. Howard shrugged.

"I dunno, but I'm getting pretty good at it."

They stood in some sort of awkward post-accidental-kiss limbo, Howard shifting from foot-to-foot and wondering where his stuff was. Had he dropped it when he'd run into Drake? It didn't look like it was anywhere around here, and that really sucked, because all of the stuff he needed was in there. 'Bertos, bottles, and a knife. Some keys, for some cabinets he didn't want people snooping in. A bottle of water, probably; he liked to keep one in there, but it was kind of iffy whether it was full or not.

"Is my bag…"

"I never saw it."

"Right," Howard muttered. "On to search for it. What fun. See you around."

He headed out, his shoulders hunched and his hands deep in his pockets. He didn't know what he was doing, kissing Edilio's boyfriend. Didn't he like Edilio? Hell, didn't it go farther back than that, didn't he like _Orc? _Was he just skipping between dudes, because nobody ever liked him back?

He shook his head, irritated. He needed to focus less on the fact that he was crushing on every dude that looked at him twice and more on the fact that he'd lost his bag. Sure, with Orc earning regular wages again, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. _But, _Howard had a lot of stuff in there, including that lump of gold he still hadn't managed to melt down. He still hadn't stolen the molds from Albert, though that would probably be easier with Jamal gone – _two birds with one stone, good job Bassem – _but none of that mattered if he didn't have the damn gold in the first place.

He backtracked, straight back to Astrid's house. It was crowded up there, kids with buckets taking from the raincloud that was still going strong. He saw some of Edilio's kids keeping the peace, and one of Sanjit's little siblings running around for the hospital.

He wondered if Edilio was getting enough water. Probably not, because they were so insistent on trying to heal the little kids instead of people that this group actually _needed, _but Howard could be optimistic sometimes. Maybe Edilio even had a bed now-

Nope. He was still freezing out on the steps, most likely without any water or food.

Either way, none of it was his business. He started to retrace his steps to his house, hoping that the kids would've recognized the backpack as his and not looted it. He'd only gone a few blocks, so it should be somewhere around here…

"Howard."

He jumped and turned. Albert, with a few bodyguards behind him. Howard noticed with a sick twinge to his stomach that Jamal was not with him. So Drake had gone after him right away, huh?

"Yeah?" he asked. Albert held up the backpack. "So you found it. What, you want to buy some stock in my business?"

"I want to know why I found these in your bag," Albert said, holding up two things – one was the lump of gold that Howard had found in the house, and the other was a dried-up piece of pineapple.

Howard's mind raced. Gold first, the gold was easy.

"Gold I found in a house, figured I'd get around to doing something with it eventually," Howard said, shrugging. "If you wanna melt it down, be my guest – take a cut, or whatever."

"Alright," Albert said. "I can believe that. But what about this? I'm pretty sure it's pineapple."

"I found a can a while ago," Howard said. He tried to keep his heartbeat steady. He didn't know how good Albert was at figuring out that Howard was totally fucking lying. "Something must have fallen in."

"This is definitely from a while ago," Albert said, turning it over in his hand. He looked up, and Howard was about one hundred percent sure that the dude was onto him. "But you don't exactly have a surplus of food, do you? Not enough that you wouldn't miss this."

Howard took a deep breath.

"And you know who told me something rather interesting?" Albert asked, and Howard took a look at his bodyguards. Both of them were bigger than him. _Everyone _was bigger than him. "Our mutual friend Edilio. He said that he thinks you have something hidden. Something that 'could save a lot of kids.'"

"Look," Howard said. "I know you're looking to replenish your secret stash since the Human Crew beat the shit out of you, but I don't have anything like that. But I will take that."

He leaned forward and grabbed the dried-up pineapple from Albert's hand and popped it into his mouth. He grabbed his backpack, too, and threw one strap over his shoulder. He looked at the gold and hesitated.

"I'll have someone bring you your cut," Albert said. "Eventually."

…

Howard Bassem was doing something that he hadn't done in a long, long time – he was reading a novel for pleasure.

Orc hadn't been there when he'd been home, so there was no chance of going up to Coates to get another batch made before dark, and with Drake running around, he didn't want to chance going out after dark. Albert's people were definitely watching him, so he couldn't go down to the school for something good to eat. So he'd scraped together something so that he wouldn't starve and was now sitting on the porch, his feet up on the railing, reading _Inda _by Sherwood Smith. It was some fantasy thing. Interesting enough.

The best thing about this 'reading' thing, though, was the look of utter shock on Edilio Escobaar's face when he came by, shivering and coughing and using his gun for a cane again. He was looking better. Maybe.

"Yeah?" Howard asked. Edilio came up to the porch, still looking at the book. "What? It's not like I can go play X-box, and all of the comic books are snapped up right now. So I'm reading. Go have a stroke somewhere else."

Edilio shook his head and crossed his arms. "Have you seen Astrid?"

"Astrid? No. Why would I be seeing Astrid?" he asked.

"Because the last anyone saw her, she was with Orc. And they've both been gone for a while."

Howard's heart dropped into his stomach. "So it's a serious thing, then?"

"Yes," Edilio snapped. "It is a serious thing. I'm surprised you're not out looking for Orc right now."

"I just figured he was with Astrid, and that someone knew where they were, and that you guys had just not bothered to tell me. Like usual, you know," Howard said. He swallowed a few times.

"Do you know where he could've gone?" Edilio asked. Howard licked his lips.

"Uh," he said. "Beach, he likes the beach. Er, Coates-"

"Coates? Why?"

"We do stuff up there. Sometimes. Nothing illegal," Howard said hastily, and Edilio looked like he was very close to rolling his eyes. Howard had the insane urge to blurt out the fact that he'd kissed Roger, and then decided that that was the worst thing that he could ever do. "But he could be up there."

Edilio was silent for a while, had a mild coughing fit, and then spoke again, his voice creaky and rough.

"Will you look?"

"Me? It's getting dark, and Drake-"

"Tomorrow, if you don't want to deal with it tonight. Just – do it, okay?"

"I really think you're expecting too much from me."

"I really don't think I am!" Edilio said. He was close to yelling, as close to yelling as his voice could get right about now. "You're capable of so much more-"

"Yeah? Well you're about the only one who thinks so," Howard snapped. He slammed the book shut and tossed it to the ground, standing up. "I'm just living up to the expectations, man. Get someone who actually gives a shit to go."

"You care about Orc," Edilio said. He coughed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Yeah? I thought I just used him for protection," Howard said. "And, anyway, if he's run off again, he obviously doesn't care much about me, so, no. I'm going to stay home. I'm going to read this goddam book, because it freaks you people out that I'm _literate. _So, sorry, man, but your guilt-tripping isn't going to work on me."

Edilio sighed, and the sigh turned into a coughing fit that sounded bad. Really bad. Howard had just said that Edilio couldn't get him to do anything, but… man, right about now, he was pretty sure the dude was dying.

"Have you slept inside for the past week?"

"No," Edilio coughed.

Howard looked up to the sky, swore, and stepped off the porch to be with him. "Come on," he said. Still feeling like this was the worst idea in the world, he continued. "You can take Orc's bed. If he's run off, he's not going to use it. And don't look at me like that, we've only been here for a little bit, he hasn't really messed it up yet. Okay, it's a mattress on the floor, but he hasn't like, puked in it yet. He hasn't been drinking as much lately. So shut up and follow me."

* * *

**I have a vaguely-supported-by-canon headcanon that Howard's best class was English, because dude's creative and occasionally uses big words.**


	17. Chapter 16: In Which Bugs Attack

Edilio stayed at his house for the next few days as everything went to hell.

Albert definitely had his people following Howard, so all he'd ended up doing was going on his regular rounds with the stuff he already had. He'd debated going up to Coates once or twice, but he'd really rather not let Albert know what he had going on up there. Everyone knew that he did this sort of stuff, he wasn't stupid enough to think that it was some big secret, but the less they knew about it, the better. As well as that, he couldn't get to the storeroom under the school, and that cut out two things that probably would have been ruined by Howard's actions anyway – eating actually good food and bitching about everything with The Artful Roger.

Edilio sometimes went out, but he spent most of his time shivering on Orc's mattress and coughing. He was getting better, Howard was pretty sure that he was getting better – he hadn't coughed hard enough to knock himself into a wall or anything, and all of the coughs were starting to sound a lot more like regular, non-deadly cold coughs. So there was a shining light in the darkness.

Howard was back in the house after his morning deliveries. Edilio had been looking through the book collection. The house that Howard had picked out for him and Orc post-zombie-escape had belonged to someone who had really liked the things, apparently, and while Howard guessed it was cool to have something to entertain him, he wished whoever it had been had been more into building secret bomb shelters full of non-perishable food that he could just stumble upon accidentally.

"There's a lot of Stephen King," Edilio said. Howard, who was trying to fit as many bottles possible into his backpack, glanced up.

"Yeah," he said. "Chances are, if you run into any house with any books, there'll be a shitton of Stephen King."

"I think I saw one of those movies once," Edilio said, frowning. He pulled one off of the shelf and read the back. Howard decided to leave him to it and headed for the door.

When he opened it, it was absolute chaos. Kids running, huge-as-fuck bugs running around, smoke, the whole banana. Howard stood and stared for a few seconds, and then threw the door shut.

"Nope," he said. He turned around. "Nope, we're not dealing with that."

Edilio looked up.

"Huh? What's going on?"

"To be honest, Deely-O, I have no fucking clue," Howard said. "I just know that I am not going to deal with this."

"Deal with-"

"Don't open the door!"

Edilio looked out the window and his eyes widened. He grabbed for his gun and Howard grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Oh, no. Your boyfriend will never forgive me if I let you run out and die. I don't know what those things can do, but I'm pretty sure that your gun ain't gonna stop them. So we're going to stay in here. We might even hide in a closet if things get shitty enough. We're going to let Brianna handle this."

"You want me to put the fate of the town in _Brianna's _hands?"

"She's our only option right now," Howard said. He laughed. "Man, we're only human. Let the freaks deal with this. You're still sick, even."

Edilio opened his mouth to object, but Howard shook his head.

"Whatever," he said. "But I'm grabbing all of the food I've got left in here and going for the most out-of-the-way closet this place has. You with me, or are you planning on killing yourself?"

Edilio opened his mouth, then closed it again. He glanced outside. "I can't wait in here with them out there."

"Look, Roger's a smart guy," Howard said. "Well. Okay, Roger cares about that kid. They're as safe as any of us."

Edilio stared at the ground. "I can't just sit here and do nothing."

"Why _not?"_

"How can you?" Edilio asked. He was actually yelling now, and Howard wondered just how well those bugs could hear before he was sucked back into the argument. "How can you just sit here and not do anything? People are dying out there! Back at the fire-"

"Back at the fire – I don't know. I don't know what happened there, but I figure I've done my part. I'm no hero, Escobar. That's your job. Me? I'm just trying to survive."

Edilio stared at him, and then shook his head. "I have to go," he said. "I have to – I have to see if they're okay, and I have to see what I can do to help-"

"Nothing! You can do nothing! What you can do is sit tight and wait, because they're sure as hell going to need you when this is all over. You go now and we lose the only goddam competent person in the entire fucking FAYZ. Then it doesn't matter whether they survive or not, because nobody'll survive much longer without you."

Howard was breathing hard by now, something rising up within him that he couldn't quite pinpoint. He didn't know if these very strong feelings of not wanting Edilio to die had anything to do with those goddam feelings, but he did know that he didn't want Edilio to go out there. They'd all be screwed if he died.

Edilio shook his head and took a step toward the door. Howard glanced around, his gaze falling on a hardcover book.

Well…

Edilio was sick, so…

Howard grabbed the book and smacked Edilio on the back of the head as hard as he could manage. On a normal day, Edilio probably would have been a little dizzy, but turned around and then Howard would have been in trouble. As it was, he went down.

Howard dropped the book and crouched beside Edilio. Yep, he definitely was not conscious. Not even in the least. So all Howard had to do now was make sure he couldn't leave even when he was conscious. Maybe he could pull a chair into the pantry or something, and tie him to that? Wow, he was dead once Edilio stopped being sick. He just hoped that Orc would come home before then. Even with Edilio hanging out, it was like there was an empty part in Howard's heart when Orc wasn't around.

Jesus, that sounded dumb. But it was true.

…

Howard Bassem was sitting in a closet, his legs pulled up to his chest, his back to Edilio, who was still passed out. To be honest, Howard was starting to get a little worried about the guy – he didn't know how long he'd been sitting in the closet, screams from outside leaking through the walls, but it had been a long time. The only indication that Edilio was still alive was raspy breathing.

How stupid would it be if he'd accidentally killed Edilio while trying to make sure he didn't run out and kill himself? That was some fucked up shit right there. He really hoped that that hadn't happened.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, however, Edilio groaned and shifted. Howard kept his back to him. He'd tied Edilio's hands together so that he couldn't just shove Howard over and leave – or, at least, because that would make it harder for Edilio to just shove Howard over and leave – but now he was sort of regretting that.

After a few more minutes of Edilio muttering in Spanish and groaning, he spoke. "What happened?"

"I hit you with a book," Howard said. "Useful things, really. Especially when they're hardcover and weigh as much as my head."

"You _what?"_

"Book. Head. Good-night, Edilio," Howard repeated, speaking slowly. "Because Edilio was being an idiot, and Howard had to do something so that Edilio didn't rush out and kill himself, therefore leaving his boyfriend and kid all alone."

Edilio groaned and slumped backward, leaning heavier against Howard's back, his head on Howard's shoulder. Howard thought for a terrifying moment that he'd passed out again, but then he spoke again.

"Did you tie me up?"

"Yes."

"Why-"

"Because you're acting like you want to run off again, and I-" Howard cut himself off. He shivered, then realized that Edilio could probably feel that and stopped.

"And you what?"

Howard ignored him. He didn't know how much longer they were going to stay there, cramped up in this closet with a pathetic amount of food shoved in near Howard's food and absolutely no water except for about half an inch at the bottom of Howard's water bottle, but he could still hear screams, so he was content to stay.

* * *

**Sooo we've got the bugs running around. Caine's probably showing up about now, too, and Drake's probably doing his thing up by Coates and whatever, but our lovely protagonist has locked himself in a closet.**


End file.
